List of computer viruses: Encyclopedia II - List of computer viruses - Naming

List of computer viruses - Naming

One fundamental fact that makes the compilation of a unified list of viruses difficult is naming. When a new virus appears, the rush begins to identify and understand it as well as develop appropriate counter-measures to stop its propagation. Along the way, a name is attached to the virus. As the developers of anti-virus software compete partly based on how quickly they react to the new threat they usually study and name the viruses independently. By the time it is identified which names denote the same virus the different names have been used enough to stay around.

Another source of ambiguity in names is that sometimes a virus initially identified as a completely new virus is found to be a variation of an earlier known virus, in which cases it is often renamed. For example, the second variation of the Sobig worm was initially called Palyh but later renamed Sobig.b. Again, depending on how quickly this happens the old name may persist.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Naming", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki