Problem with "false positives" in some antivir pro

[Light]

Well, here you can test you program in about 37 or so antivir programs :

Main page :
http://www.virustotal.com

Info :
http://www.virustotal.com/sobre.html

[Neosoft Support]

Interesting site.

I uploaded a sample compiled NeoBook pub and it passed 35 out of 36 tests. Only eSafe indicated that it had a problem with the file which is obviously incorrect. I have sent an email to the makers of eSafe.

[David de Argentina]

Hi Dave,

Checking NeoBook.exe (5.5.4 - Spanish) , website detects two possible viruses.

Please, check it.

Greetings from Buenos Aires,
David de Argentina

[Neosoft Support]

First of all, any copies of NeoBook obtained directly from NeoSoft do NOT contain viruses, spyware, malware, etc.

The problem with a site like virustotal is that virus scanners do make mistakes - quite often. Unfortunately, like any software, the quality of virus scanners can vary greatly. Also, some publishers could care less if there products make mistakes, because when a user sees warnings about potential a virus, they are relieved because they see it as a sign that their virus checker is working. It matters little that it could well be a false alarm!

You would think that if a file really was infected that all (or a majority) of the scanners on virustotal would be able to identify it. If only one or two out of 36 of the scanners indicates a problem, then it's extremely likely that the file does not contain an actual virus.