List of computer viruses
To aid the fight against viruses and other malware many security advisory organizations and developers of anti-virus software compile and publish lists of viruses. While from a user perspective a single list of viruses would make sense no definitive list currently exists.
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2 Scope 3 List of viruses and related programs 4 See also 5 External links |
One fundamental fact that makes the compilation of a unified list of viruses difficult is naming.
When a new virus appears, the rush begins to identify and understand it as well as develop appropriate
counter-measures to stop its propagation. Along the way, a name is attached to the virus. As the
developers of anti-virus software compete partly based on how quickly they react to the new threat
they usually study and name the viruses independently. By the time it is identified which names
denote the same virus the different names have been used enough to stay around.
Another source of ambiguity in names is that sometimes a virus initially identified as a
completely new virus is found to be a variation of an earlier known virus, in which
cases it is often renamed. For example, the second variation of the Sobig worm was initially
called Palyh but later renamed Sobig.b. Again, depending on how quickly this happens the old name
may persist.
In terms of scope, there are two major variants: the list of "in-the-wild" viruses, which list viruses
in active circulation, and lists of all known viruses, which also contain viruses beleived
not be in active circulation (also called "zoo viruses"). The sizes are vastly different, in-the-wild
lists contain a few hundred viruses but full lists contain tens of thousands.
Naming
Scope
List of viruses and related programs
See also
External links