IDENTIFICATION

The ability of an antivirus program (usually a scanner) to not only detect the virus and recognize it by name, but also to recognize it to a high degree of uniqueness. This allows third parties to understand which particular virus it is without seeing a sample of the virus. EXACT IDENTIFICATION occurs when every section of the non- modifiable parts of the virus body are uniquely identified. ALMOST EXACT IDENTIFICATION occurs if the identification is only good enough to ensure that an attempt to remove the virus will not result in damage to the host object by the use of an inappropriate disinfection method (also see DETECTION and RECOGNITION, in this section).