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Effectiveness of Antivirus Software
Studies in December 2007 have shown that the effectiveness of Antivirus software is much reduced from what it was a few years ago, particularly against unknown or zero day threats.
The problem is magnified by the changing intent of virus authors. Some years ago it was obvious when a virus infection was present. The viruses of the day, written by amateurs, exhibited destructive behavior or popped-up screen messages. Modern viruses are often written by professionals, financed by criminal organizations. It is not in their interests to make their viruses evident, because their purpose is to create bot-nets or steal information for as long as possible without the user realizing this; consequently, they are often well-hidden. If an infected user has a less-than-effective antivirus product that says the computer is clean, then the virus may go undetected. As a result of this, even major antivirus products have failed to detect programs containing malicious behaviour.