A.P. Lawrence

2005/02/28 CARO

Ever wonder how viruses are named? Well, yeah, they do "make it up", but there are conventions and the CARO (Computer Antivirus Researchers Association) offers a standard for naming. Among other things, they suggest NOT using any name that the virus writer suggested. That has led to some interesting wars: virus writers have tried putting the name they want to use back into listings.

But viruses do end up with different names, because virus scanning companies discover these independently of each other. A tool to help with that problem is Vgrep, which cross-references virus names across the more popular Anti-Virus products.

See A Virus by Any Other Name: Virus Naming Practices for more information.

Psst - Wanna work for yourself?

Comments


Mon Feb 28 19:41:00 2005: Subject: "standard for naming" link invalid   anonymous
http://www.caro.org/tiki-index.php?page=MalwareNamingIssues



results in a polite "page not found" by the website

--Bob

Mon Feb 28 21:19:50 2005: Subject:   TonyLawrence
Well, that's where it was when I wrote this, but I just checked now and its at http://www.caro.org/tiki-index.php?page=CaroNamingScheme



I wonder how often they move it.


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