Downloaded suspect files to see which programs detected anything

[MustISO]

Just out of curiosity, I downloaded files which I suspected of being infected with viruses. I used VirusTotal and http://virusscan.jotti.org/ to see which programs picked them up. The results were interesting but also very confusing. In most cases, 20% - 50% of the programs used identified the files as being infected with a trojan.

If the files are in face infected, the results are extremely disappointing, if they are false positives then it's still kind of disappointing and confusing.

 

[akhilles]

Unless they let you turn off heuristics, I consider the result false positives.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: akhilles
Unless they let you turn off heuristics, I consider the result false positives.

My testing with real-world malware might interest you: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=76&threadid=2084972 Even the top products fell far short of detecting all the malware and malware-related files, and there were some that weren't detected by anything at all. Be careful out there, antivirus software can't save you from everything