A generic virus detection agent on the Internet

The dissemination of software has never been so easy since the Internet became widely available. This ease of access to free software has also pushed the wide spread of viruses to a new plateau. We present VICEd, a system for generic virus detection over the Internet. VICEd is based on a virus detection methodology which is a combination of software emulation and knowledge base. It detects viruses using their behaviour instead of pattern matching. It is thus more effective against unknown or mutated viruses than scanners. This methodology is interesting in its own right. VICEd is a member of a group of system management agents currently under development at the National Taiwan University.