Why is BT McAfee Virus Protect Not Scanning All Files?

[petania]

Since last week, when running a full scan, only 53,000 files are shown as scanned; previously it was around 250,000.  I have contacted BT, but nobody seems to know anything about BT McAfee Virus Protect.   Does anybody know why the number of files scanned has been reduced recently?  Surely when running a full scan, all the files should be checked, not just 20% of them.  I posted this on the BT Forum and it was suggested that BT Virus Protect is in line with McAfee and uses the "New Next Generation Scanning Engine".  Can anyone from McAfee let me know if this is the reason less files are now being scanned?

[petania]

Since last week, when running a full scan, only 53,000 files are shown as scanned; previously it was around 250,000.  I have contacted BT, but nobody seems to know anything about BT McAfee Virus Protect.   Does anybody know why the number of files scanned has been reduced recently?  Surely when running a full scan, all the files should be checked, not just 20% of them.  I posted this on the BT Forum and it was suggested that BT Virus Protect is in line with McAfee and uses the "New Next Generation Scanning Engine".  Can anyone from McAfee let me know if this is the reason less files are now being scanned?

[catdaddy]

Discussion successfully moved from Virus and Spyware Protection to VirusScan

[catdaddy]

There is an update coming to scanning  August 1 so we shall see if any change but I think it is more in relation to the scanned file total shown.

Please refer to the following comments from the Virus Scan Product Manager;

McAfee Product Manager, here.  I'll take a crack at explaining how we've changed the scanning technology & why.  But let me first encourage those of you who like the ability to scan a particular file or drive that we are currently working on re-adding that to the product.

What's happened?

McAfee has responded to feedback from users who wanted to be protected, while not paying a heavy Performance price.  One way to accomplish this was by shifting to a more Cloud-reliant Next Gen AV engine.  Instead of carrying nearly 200MB of DATs (virus signatures) on the PC, we are trimming down DATs to about 1/5 the size and offloaded much of what was previously handled by the PC locally, to the Cloud.  Instead of using only signatures & static file attributes, which have to be updated constantly, we are also looking at file behaviors (Dynamic attributes).  The end result is detection that is always getting better through Machine Learning (instead of having to try to keep up by logging signatures of known viruses constantly).

Why are scans not looking at as many files?

With previous technology, McAfee would scan every file, every time - unless scans are customized.  On a PC loaded with a lot of files, this could lead to a significantly long scan time, and depending upon your PC power, some perceivable lag.  With the Next Gen AV, we focus on scripts and anything executable, and those file types which are potentially subject to infection.  But file types, like some media which are not a risk, are not included in the On Demand Scans.  It doesn't mean they're ignored.  Upon access of any file, McAfee is checking for suspicious behaviors - and if seen, the activity is stopped and the file quarantined.  And because McAfee is recording any bad behaviors, the product assists in rolling back to previous state.

There is never a perfect approach to Security, but with Next Gen AV we think we have addressed Performance concerns while also improving detection capabilities...kind of the holy grail of AV.

Having said all this, feel free to let me know your concerns.  We design our products for you, so tell me what you want.

Tracy

[petania]

Thanks for your response.  I note that others have similar issues with running full scans and, although I don't understand everything in your reply, I do understand that all files are no longer being scanned.  Time will tell if this will mean more or less malware being detected!

[catdaddy]

I am glad that you somewhat have a better understanding. As I mentioned there is a update moving forward around/on August 1st. What all it will contain is yet to be seen. However there will eventually be a *Upgrade* to 16.2 in the near future.