Recent research published in The Times newspaper demonstrated the fallibility of Anti-Virus software alone. In an article on tests conducted by independent consultants BrownWright, the Times reported that even well-known AV-scanning software failed to recognise up to 600 viruses in circulation.

Similarly, the DTI Security Breaches Survey 1996 also stated that over 600 companies who responded during their research experienced an average of 2.8 virus incidents per year, despite having AV scanning software. There are numerous reasons for this, but the principle factors are these:

• By the time AV Scanners detect viral activity, you are already infected and stringent (and expensive) clean-up measures must be put into immediate effect on every machine that might have been infected, whether it has been or not

• AV signature files, no matter how often updated, will always lag behind the release and propagation of the virus

• No virus scanning software can truthfully claim to have detected the signature for every virus that exists. 100% virus protection is simply not possible. So even if you have AV software installed on every PC in your organisation, the statistics suggest you are likely to experience at least one or two infections every year.