OK - so we seem to have found the cheapest (free) reasonable scanner - but what I want to know is what do the virus writers use? Presumably they must need really good protection.
I would assume that the majority of virus writers use virtual test-beds, like bochs or VMWare, to test their code on. Not much point developing a virus under full AV protection that won't let it run :)
There is some evidence that a number of the virii out there - or at least their payloads - aren't actually tested. I vaguely recall at least one that had a payload which was supposed to erase the BIOS by accessing the flash registers, but failed because of a fault. Kind of hard to test that sort of payload without trashing your computer :)
It's a bit like - I want to drink the beer the Germans are drinking.
Personally, if I was writing a virus (something I will NEVER do), I'd just make sure my system was proofed against that virus.
Any virus writers out there must have some dodgy anonymous way of replying.
They might, but then there'd be no point to them telling us anything. If the whole world was protected against virii, the virus writers wouldn't have any reason to continue writing. Most of them are in it for the pure joy of knowing that they're causing damage. There's no profit in it for them to tell us how to avoid that damage, is there.
-- Corey Murtagh The Electric Monk "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur!"
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