Bridging the gap between Red-alert virus situation and quality file-signature release

Recently, antivirus vendors have come under increasing criticism about the time they take to react to a red-alert virus situation1. Virus' have become more sophisticated and spread more rapidly than ever before. Correspondingly, antivirus vendors are required to reduce the time taken to respond to new viruses. They also need to continue to provide quality support. Thus, balancing the need for a quicker solution with the market requirement for quality solutions and support. This has highlighted the need for both a paradigm shift in malware protection and investment in new technology to implement this shift. It is no longer sufficient to only have the mechanism to provide worldwide automatic downloads of product updates to meet head-on any virus threat. The antivirus vendors must also produce these updates in a timely, quality controlled manner. This paper will look at the reasons behind this change, how it came about and how technologically the protection needs can be addressed. It will also briefly look at the possible economical advantages of adopting such technology.