Many people are aware that antivirus programs are crucial for the protection of their computers but not many are aware of the magnitude the industry has to deal with. Even the best antivirus software are susceptible to issues. Some are minor and may easily be fixed, whereas others are more severe.

One of the main issues is that virus signatures do not provide enough to protect against the vast majority of threats. When new viruses are discovered it takes a long time before antivirus companies can develop and release new anti-virus updates. This is due to the fact that they have to wait until their products recognize the virus and then send it to be analysed.

The virus could spread, and dozens or even hundreds of computers are likely to be infected. It may also be transmitted to other networks. To be efficient, anti-virus software must to be able to detect and block such infections very quickly. This means that heuristic, or behavior analysers are home more effective than simple signature detection.

Incompatibility is another problem. While the majority of antivirus software makers place a lot of focus on creating high-quality products and pay great attention to removing bugs, the truth is that sometimes, multiple antivirus programs can create conflicts.