This is just a thought from my little brain. Nowadays there are a lot of computer viruses spreading all over the internet and networks. Computer viruses come in many variants such as worms, trojan horses, rootkits, keyloggers, spyware, etc. They come with their own goals but usually aim to steal information or commit identity theft. A computer virus can copy itself, spread through the network, and infect other hosts (computers). They can also hide or protect themselves within the computer system.
To counter the fast-growing computer virus threat, there are now lots of antivirus software packages to protect your system from getting infected. Some antivirus software is free, but many of them you have to pay for. All of this antivirus software has its own virus databases and daily update features to keep your computer safe. Besides having different virus databases, they also have different algorithms to search the entire system.
Anyway, what I want to say in this article is: what if we had an online open source virus database? With this we could have the same information and the same algorithm to recognize viruses, and the database would be maintained by the community or users.
What is the goal of this open source online virus database:
- To reduce and counter the virus spreading
- To provide an online virus database, which will trigger open source antivirus development as well.
- Provide an up-to-date virus database, maintained by the community
- Community can actively send virus samples, update the virus database, and update the search algorithm.
- Can be used on all platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Sun OS, Android, iOS, Symbian, or anything, you name it.
There are still a lot of ideas in my mind. But for now I write this so later I can use this article as my reference.