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The malware numbers game: how many viruses are out there?[/h] By Ed Bott
April 15, 2012, 6:00pm PDT
Summary: How many distinct strains of malware are in circulation today? If you said hundreds of thousands or millions, you’re way off. A close look at numbers from one leading security company helps explain why some big numbers don’t tell the whole story.
How many strains of malware are in circulation right now, for Windows PCs, Android devices, and Macs?
That seems like a straightforward question, but the answer is far from simple. And the number might be a lot lower than you think.
If you check with the leading security companies, you might be tempted to pick an answer in the millions. After all, that’s how many listings you’ll find in the definition files for common antivirus programs. At day’s end on April 12, for example, Symantec published the summary shown below, noting that its latest Virus Definitions file contained 17,702,868 separate signatures.
Oh my. 17.7 million? That certainly sounds like a very big number. But before you get swept away, it’s worth taking a closer look at what it really represents.
Eight days earlier, on April 4, that same Norton/Symantec definition file contained 17,595,922 separate detections. With 106,946 additional definitions in a mere eight days, you’d probably conclude that malware is out of control.
Because the Norton brand name is primarily associated with Windows PCs, you’d probably also assume that all of that activity was aimed at the Windows platform.
And you’d be wrong in both cases.
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My Computer
System One
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- OS
- 1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
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- PC/Desktop
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- AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
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WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
2nd build
WD Blue Sata II 500gb
WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
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- two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys