Miscellaneous Questions How many viruses are there?
It is not possible to give an exact number because new viruses are being created literally every day. Furthermore, different anti-virus researchers use different criteria to decide whether two viruses are different or one and the same. Some count viruses as different if they differ by at least one bit in their non-variable code. Others group the viruses in families and do not count the closely related variants in one family as different viruses. How do viruses spread so quickly? This is a very complex issue. Most viruses don’t spread very quickly. Those that do spread widely are able to do so for a variety of reasons. A large target population (i.e., millions of compatible computers) helps… A large virus population helps… Vendors whose quality assurance mechanisms rely on, for example, outdated scanners help… Users who gratuitously insert new software into their systems without making any attempt to test for viruses help… All of these things are factors. What is the plural of “
It is not possible to give an exact number because new viruses are being created literally every day. Furthermore, different anti-virus researchers use different criteria to decide whether two viruses are different or one and the same. Some count viruses as different if they differ by at least one bit in their non-variable code. Others group the viruses in families and do not count the closely related variants in one family as different viruses. How do viruses spread so quickly? This is a very complex issue. Most viruses don’t spread very quickly. Those that do spread widely are able to do so for a variety of reasons. A large target population (i.e., millions of compatible computers) helps… A large virus population helps… Vendors whose quality assurance mechanisms rely on, for example, outdated scanners help… Users who gratuitously insert new software into their systems without making any attempt to test for viruses help… All of these things are factors. What is the plural of “
