Re: Clueless anti-virus products/vendors

[Florian Weimer <fw () deneb enyo de>]

* Steven M. Bellovin:

> A-V companies are in the business of analyzing viruses.

Many offer analysis services, but this is done upon special request,
and only if you pay extra.

> They should *know* how a particular virus behaves.

You don't need to know what the virus does in order to detect it with
a file-based signature.  Analysis stops as soon as detection is
possible with sufficient accuracy.  Timebombs and other hidden
functionality go unnoticed (unless the malware is form a well-known
strain which has such features).