The remainder of this section is devoted to terminology and basic concepts.
Section 2 describes the different types of functionality that are available in anti-virus tools. Several different types of detection tools are described, as well as identification and removal tools. This information should assist readers in identifying the classes of products appropriate for their environment.
Section 3 describes some critical selection factors, including accuracy, ease of use, and efficiency. The description of each of these factors is dependent on the functional class of product in question. These selection factors are used to describe product classes in the sections that follow.
Section 4 describes specific classes of tools, such as scanners or checksum programs, and the techniques they employ. This section provides the reader with detailed information regarding the functionality, accuracy, ease of use and efficiency of these classes of tools.
Section 5 presents guidelines for the selection of the most appropriate class of anti-virus tools. It begins by outlining the important environmental aspects that should be considered. Next, the information from Section 4 is summarized and a variety of tables comparing and contrasting the various classes of tools are presented. The remainder of the section provides several hypothetical user scenarios. A battery of tools is suggested for each application.
Section 6 presents guidelines for the selection of the best tool from within a particular class. Important features that may distinguish products from others within a particular class are highlighted.
This document will be most useful if read in its entirety. However, the reader may wish to skip the details on different tools found in Section 4 on an initial reading. Section 5 may help the reader narrow the focus to specific classes of tools for a specific environment. Then the reader may return to Section 4 for details on those classes of tools.