AV false positives

[Doug]

On Wednesday my Anti-Virus pgm presented me with a warning
of possible infection of a trojan called W32:Bifrose-aa. This in
regard to a small sound/music conversion pgm that I had for only
a week.
I Googled for the characteristics of this trojan and checked
out my computer from end to end and found NO trace of
identifiable evidence of infection. I waited to see if the next
AV update would rectify the situation.
After Thursday's daily update of the AV database the AV
alarms didn't wail and urge me to commit seppuku or other such
drastic action. Evidently there had been an error in the
database.
I am using Avast and it has served me well. Have other users
experienced false positives very often? If so, what action do
you take or is this just one of those events that makes life
interesting?

Doug
====

 

[jt3]

not in 5 years.

 

[Ron Martell]

On Wednesday my Anti-Virus pgm presented me with a warning
of possible infection of a trojan called W32:Bifrose-aa. This in
regard to a small sound/music conversion pgm that I had for only
a week.
I Googled for the characteristics of this trojan and checked
out my computer from end to end and found NO trace of
identifiable evidence of infection. I waited to see if the next
AV update would rectify the situation.
After Thursday's daily update of the AV database the AV
alarms didn't wail and urge me to commit seppuku or other such
drastic action. Evidently there had been an error in the
database.
I am using Avast and it has served me well. Have other users
experienced false positives very often? If so, what action do
you take or is this just one of those events that makes life
interesting?

Doug
====

Occasional false positives are a fact of life with any antivirus
program.

And so long as humans are involved in the preparation of the programs
and of their updates there will be occasional mistakes and slipups.
Quality control and testing can reduce the frequency of these but
never totally eliminate them.

And particularly with antivirus software there is extreme urgency in
getting updates released as soon as possible after a new threat has
been identified. Delaying the update for a few hours, let alone a day
or more, so as to perform exhaustive quality control tests, could mean
that thousands or even millions of additional computers could be
infected by the new threat.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Alan]

On Wednesday my Anti-Virus pgm presented me with a warning of possible
infection of a trojan called W32:Bifrose-aa. This in regard to a small
sound/music conversion pgm that I had for only a week.
I Googled for the characteristics of this trojan and checked out my
computer from end to end and found NO trace of identifiable evidence of
infection. I waited to see if the next AV update would rectify the
situation.
After Thursday's daily update of the AV database the AV alarms didn't
wail and urge me to commit seppuku or other such drastic action. Evidently
there had been an error in the database.
I am using Avast and it has served me well. Have other users
experienced false positives very often? If so, what action do you take or
is this just one of those events that makes life interesting?

Doug
====

It is better to warn you of a potential problem than for a program not to
find things. If you aren't happy with the way it works change your program-
it is you that has the choice.

 

[PA Bear]

AVG Free Forum
http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/

 

[Plato]

I am using Avast and it has served me well. Have other users
experienced false positives very often? If so, what action do

False positives are a fact of life.