User Guide

6
User’s Guide 105
6Updating and Upgrading
VirusScan Software
Developing an updating strategy
Make no mistake about it: virus writers are electronic vandals who can destroy
your data, cause system instability, and cost you time and money. The
overwhelming majority of them are relatively inept programmers who rely on
virus “kits,” or other pre-made tools, to introduce small variations in existing
viruses or other malicious software. But some virus writers do introduce new
twists or unexpected attack strategies into their creations. To counter these
threats, McAfee Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT) researchers
must release frequent updates to the virus definitions database and technical
enhancements or upgrades to the scan engine that VirusScan software uses.
Without updated files, VirusScan software might not recognize new forms of
malicious software or detect new virus strains when it encounters them.
What are .DAT files?
Virus definition, or .DAT, files contain up-to-date virus signatures and other
information that McAfee anti-virus products use to protect your computer
against the thousands of computer viruses in circulation. McAfee releases new
.DAT files weekly to provide protection against the approximately 500 new
viruses that appear each month.
With this VirusScan release, McAfee has introduced a new incremental .DAT,
or iDAT, technology that consists of small file collections that contain only the
virus definitions that have changed between weekly .DAT file releases—not
the entire .DAT file set. This development means that you can download .DAT
file updates much faster, and at a far lower cost in bandwidth, than ever
before. To learn more about the new technology, see Appendix F,
“Understanding iDAT Technology.”
What is the scan engine?
The McAfee scan engine is at the heart of McAfee anti-virus software. The
engine contains the program logic necessary to scan files at particular points,
process and pattern-match virus definitions with data it finds in your files,
decrypt and run virus code in an emulated environment, apply heuristic
techniques to recognize new viruses, and remove infectious code from
legitimate files. The remaining parts of the VirusScan package help to feed files
to the engine for processing, integrate with various parts of your computer’s
operating system to intercept files as they execute or as you work with them,
and provide an interface you can use to configure various scan settings.