[ Can I get your samples? | Do you have all of them? | Why did you build this? | Do we need to pay you? | How reliable are your numbers? | Can I send you samples? | What is malware? | Do you have all the details of ….? | Are you up-to-date? | How do you work? | Why did you not include scanner ……? ]
Can I get your samples?
NO
Only antivirus manufacturers and CERT contacts may get access following a strict protocol.
If you qualify as one of them you should contact me per email and I will explain the procedure.
Everyone else: Don't even bother.
Law enforcement officers: Please specify wether you want coffee or tea if you visit. You are welcome to pay me a visit. Just bring your own cookies. (Hey, I'm Dutch and I'm on a diet ;-)
Do you have all of them?
No, I guesss I only have about 5 to 20% of all malware out there. With a significant section being historical. And I may be an optimist at that.
Why did you build this?
I always found virusnames rather confusing. Mainly because there are so many of them for one and the same virus. By indexing them and making it possible to search them I hope people will be able to help others.
Do we need to pay you?
No,
It seems I can brake even on the google ads.
I expect everyone to be nice and follow google guidelines for these ads.
If you ever feel like advertising here you can do it straight through Google.
But I would not mind getting a notification if you did.
How reliable are your numbers?
They are reliable in the sense that these are the results on my collection.
However you should not rely on them if you are looking for a comparison. There are some valid resons why some groups of samples are not detected. Some of the tools do not care about phishing email or jokes to name some of the valid issues. So never base your decision just on my results.
Can I send you samples?
Sure.
But only send them to 
or vangnet@waakhond.net if you want to use email as you will end up in a blacklist automagically if you use another address.
There is now also an upload page which accepts files up to 2MB. It will give you instant results of two scanners. I may add other scanners to it.
I may or may not send you some details back on the samples you send. If you would like a short report please indicate so clearly. Reports will never be send for allready listed samples.
What is malware?
The name 'virus' is used a lot. But it is in fact not entirely acurate in a lot situations. So a new name emerged to describe all of it.
So malware is now the term to gather under one flag:
- adware
- spyware
- trojan
- virus
- worm
For more details please refer to the Malware description in the wikipedia.
Do you have all the details of ….?
No
This project is about combining names of malware I can lay my hands on. If you are fortunate one of the companies who have a virus encyclopedia will have a full description online.
Are you up-to-date?
Sometime people question wether or not the scanners are up-to-date. All testes scanner are the latest ones to my knowledge and I check them frequently. Some exception are the ones where the latest product is not working well but a previous one is doing well enough.
I plan to state updates in the news section.
How do you work?
The procedure is listed shortly below:
- Each scanner tested will test the full set of samples each night. The exact scan options are listed online.
- Each scanner output will be parsed by a custom script to extract the information.
- Because each sample has a unique filename the result of the individual sample by each scanner can be linked to the results of the other scanners for the same filename.
- All information is pushed into a MySQL database and this website reads directly from this database.
Why did you not include scanner ……?
There are several reasons why a virus scanner is not included:
- There is no Linux version. (I do not expect to include windows anytime soon!)
- I could not get it to run on one of my systems.
- I never heard of it. But perhaps you can point me to it?