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MYTH: "only 500 different viruses? But most experts talk about them in the thousands"
Reality:
People who claim much larger numbers tend to work for antivirus companies -- or they simply "parrot" what
they hear others say. Antivirus firms tend to count even the most insignificant variations of viruses for
advertising purposes. When the Marijuana virus first appeared, for example, it contained the word
"legalise," but a miscreant later modified it to read "legalize." Any program which detects
the original virus can detect the version with one letter changed -- but antivirus companies often count them as
"two" viruses. These obscure differentiations quickly add up.
Add to this the fact that most viruses never make it "into the wild" in the first place. They reside
only in virus libraries kept by researchers.
And please note: the clear majority of "new" computer viruses discovered these days are only variations
of well-known viruses.
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