The Virus list button on the Platinum Internet Security toolbar or button bar allows you to access the list of viruses detected by the program. You can get detailed information on every virus in the list by selecting it.
The drop-down list in the section Show virus types gives you the option to display All viruses Program viruses, Boot viruses, Macro viruses, a list of the Most common viruses or Search by content. The viruses displayed in the list will vary depending on the option selected.
You can also enter the name of a virus in the section Find virus in order to easily search for a specific virus. The virus list is also arranged in alphabetical order to facilitate the search for specific viruses.
When you select any virus in the list, detailed information about that virus will be displayed in the section Virus description. The data displayed includes: Name, Alias, Origin, Date (when the virus was detected), Size (of the virus) the areas that it Infects and if it is Disinfectable. This section also specifies if the virus has certain characteristics. These characteristics include:
· Resident: When it is executed, the virus reserves a small space in the memory and carries out its infection from there.
· Stealth: This is a technique used by some resident viruses. This technique involves camouflaging the changes that the virus makes to the files that it infects. When the user tries to consult the characteristics of the file that the virus has modified, the virus, which is memory resident, intercepts the inquiry and presents the data before it was modified.
· Encrypted: Viruses that use this technique can encrypt or encode themselves. Those that encrypt themselves in a different way every time they infect a file are polymorphic viruses.
· Overwrite: Overwrite viruses, which may be resident or not, overwrite the file that they infect. The file is therefore unusable. The file size does not vary unless the virus is larger than the file. The only way to eliminate these viruses is to delete the infected file and replace it with an uninfected copy.
· Polymorphic: Polymorphic viruses are advanced versions of encrypted viruses. Polymorphic viruses can change their encryption routine every time they are generated.
· Companion: Companion viruses are viruses that in order infect an EXE file, create a COM file with the same name and with the hidden attribute. If two files have the same name but different extensions, COM and EXE, the MS-DOS operating system executes the COM file first. By doing this, when the program is run (EXE file) the virus (COM file) is run first, which is loaded in memory, and then the EXE file is executed so that the user does not suspect anything.
The Print button allows you to print out a copy of the information on the virus that is displayed.
For more information on viruses in general, or on a specific virus, visit the Virus encyclopedia (www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia), on the Panda Software website.