The Virus Glossary (Jargon & Abbreviations)

AV
Antivirus

BSI
Boot Sector Infector

CMOS
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor: A memory area that is used for storage of system information.

DBS
DOS Boot Sector: The sector of a diskette contains the startup code that actually loads DOS.

Detection
The ability of an antivirus program to detect the presence of a virus.

GERM
The first generation of a virus, which normally cannot be produced again during the replication process.

GOAT FILES
Programs used by antivirus researchers to capture samples of viruses.

IDENTIFICATION
The ability of an antivirus program to detect and recognize the virus by name.

MBR
Master Boot Record: the first absolute sector on a PC hard disk, that usually contains the partition table but on some PCs may only contain a boot sector.

RECOGNITION
The ability of an antivirus program to detect a virus and to recognize it by name.

SCAN/SEARCH STRING
A sequence of bytes/characters that occur in a known virus.

VX
Virus eXchange

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