McAfee DR SOLOMON S ANTI-VIRUS 8.5, Administrator'S Manual

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Administrator’s Guide 29
About Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus
Wide-spectrum coverage
As malicious agents have evolved to take advantage of the instant
communication and pervasive reach of the Internet, so Dr Solomon’s
Anti-Virus has evolved to counter the threats they present. A computer
“virus” once meant a specific type of agent—one designed to replicate on its
own and cause a limited type of havoc on the unlucky recipient’s computer. In
recent years, however, an astounding range of malicious agents has emerged
to assault personal computer users from nearly every conceivable angle. Many
of these agents—some of the fastest-spreading worms, for instance—use
updated versions of vintage techniques to infect systems, but many others
make full use of the new opportunities that web-based scripting and
application hosting present.
Still others open “back doors” into desktop systems or create security holes in
a way that closely resembles a deliberate attempt at network penetration,
rather than the more random mayhem that most viruses tend to leave in their
wakes.
The latest Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus releases, as a consequence, do not simply
wait for viruses to appear on your system, they scan proactively at the source
or work to deflect hostile agents away from your system. The WinGuard
scanner that comes with Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus has three modules that
concentrate on agents that arrive from the Internet, that spread via e-mail, or
that lurk on Internet sites. It can look for particular Java and ActiveX objects
that pose a threat, or block access to dangerous Internet sites. Meanwhile, an
E-Mail Scan extension to Microsoft Exchange e-mail clients, such as Microsoft
Outlook, can “x-ray” your mailbox on the server, looking for malicious agents
before they arrive on your desktop.
Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus even protects itself against attempts to use its own
functionality against your computer. Some virus writers embed their viruses
inside documents that, in turn, they embed in other files in an attempt to evade
detection. Still others take this technique to an absurd extreme, constructing
highly recursive—and very large—compressed archive files in an attempt to
tie up the scanner as it digs through the file looking for infections. Dr
Solomon’s Anti-Virus accurately scans the majority of popular compressed file
and archive file formats, but it also includes logic that keeps it from getting
trapped in an endless hunt for a virus chimera.
What comes with Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus?
Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus consists of several components that combine one or
more related programs, each of which play a part in defending your computer
against viruses and other malicious software. The components are: