The A to Z of security

Virus variants

As well as being virulent, viruses can spawn a sequence of variants - tweaks on the same malware theme that aim to outfox security measures and spread yet more infection.

Security from A to Z

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A is for Antivirus
B is for Botnets
C is for CMA
D is for DDoS
E is for Extradition
F is for Federated identity
G is for Google
H is for Hackers
I is for IM
J is for Jaschan (Sven)
K is for Kids
L is for Love Bug
M is for Microsoft
N is for Neologisms
O is for Orange
P is for Passwords
Q is for Questions
R is for Rootkits
S is for Spyware
T is for Two-factor authentication
U is for USB sticks/devices
V is for Virus variants
W is for Wi-fi
X is for OS X
Y is for You
Z is for Zero-day

When a virus first appears, security companies mark its name with the suffix '.A' to denote it is the first such strain of that particular virus. Each subsequent variant is then appended with an alphabetically ascending designator, so the next iteration of 'Leap.A' would be 'Leap.B' and so on. Depending on their signature files different security companies can know the same virus by different names. (Find out more by reading our Cheat Sheet: Virus names and alerts.)

A virus can be named after a string found in its code, the payload it delivers or the effect it has. It can also be popularly known by one or several names while having a more technical moniker too - the virus VBS/VBSWG.J, for instance, is also known as the 'Kournikova' virus, so named because of the promise of a naked picture of tennis star Anna Kournikova used to induce its victims to click.