Next: Accuracy
Up: A Guide to the Selection
Previous: Removal Tools
Once the functional requirements have been determined, there will still be
a large assortment of tools to choose from. There are several important
selection factors that should be considered to ensure that
the right tool is selected for a particular environment.
There are four critical selection factors: Accuracy, Ease
of Use, Administrative Overhead and System Overhead. Accuracy
describes the tool's relative success rate and the types
of errors it can make. Ease of use describes the
typical user's ability to install and execute the
tool and interpret the results. Administrative overhead is
the measure of technical support and distribution effort required.
System overhead describes the tool's impact on system performance.
These factors are introduced below. In depth discussions of these factors
are in subsequent subsections.
Accuracy
is the most important of the selection factors.
Errors in detecting, identifying or removing viruses undermine user confidence
in a tool, and often cause users to disregard virus warnings.
Errors will at best result in loss of time; at
worst they will result in damage to data and programs.
Ease of use is concerned with matching the background and
abilities of the system's user to the appropriate
software. This is also important since computer users vary
greatly in technical skills and ability.
Administrative overhead can be very important as well. Distribution
of updates can be a time-consuming task in a large organization.
Certain tools require maintenance by the technical support staff
rather than the end-user. End-users will require assistance
to interpret results from some tools; this can place a large burden on
an organization's support staff. It is important to choose tools that your
organization has the resources to support.
System overhead is inconsequential from a strict security point of view.
Accurate detection, identification or removal of the virus is the
important point. However, most of these tools
are intended for end-users. If a tool is slow or causes other applications to
stop working, end-users will disable it. Thus, attention needs to be paid to
the tool's ability to work quickly and to co-exist with other applications
on the computer.
Next: Accuracy
Up: A Guide to the Selection
Previous: Removal Tools