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Updating and Upgrading Dr
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Solomon's Anti-Virus
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, 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 Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus
uses. Without updated files, Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus 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 Dr Solomon's anti-virus products use to protect your
computer against the thousands of computer viruses in circulation. Dr
Solomon's Software releases new .DAT files weekly to provide protection
against the approximately 500 new viruses that appear each month.
With this Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus release, Dr Solomon's Software 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
What is the scan engine?
The Dr Solomon's scan engine is at the heart of Dr Solomon's 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
Appendix D, "Understanding iDAT Technology."
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User's Guide
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