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In September 1995, after being a Research & Development Manager in Computer Security Engineers Ltd (CSE). it was time to go forward. I resigned from my position at CSE and started at the Research & Development department of ESaSS BV, creators of the famous ThunderBYTE AntiVirus software. Together with [ Frans Veldman ], the original author of the ThunderBYTE utilities, I made the core of the product line, the scanning-engine. At that time, it was definitely the fastest scanning-engine around. Frans and I spent a lot of time making sure it stayed the fastest. It was a hard time, but it was much fun as well. Some background story on ThunderBYTE can be found at Frans his [ personal website ].

ThunderBYTE was always technical advanced product. It was the first AntiVirus scanner that carried serious (for that time) heuristics, was one of the first - if not the first - that featured a full emulator, it was the second scanner to have its own FileSystem. On many other technological issues, ThunderBYTE was innovative. But as with life, all good things end. In November 1998, three years after the acquisition of ThunderBYTE by the Norwegian based company [ Norman ], the last updates of the program were made and to the program was parked in the vault. The technology ThunderBYTE possessed was of course not lost, it was re-used in the design of the Norman Scanner Engine.

Surprisingly, ThunderBYTE stayed popular despite the non-availability of the programs and updates. Even at the time of writing, three years after the last updates of ThunderBYTE, the product is still referenced by viruses. Usually the payload carries the deletion of the software. This was a known habit for the old viruses, but even new viruses still carry that payload. It seems that virus writers are not that innovative. Also, there is still a group of die-hards(?) that still use the software. From time to time we hear from them.

A message received by Frans on 3 September 2001, almost 3 years after(!) the last update of ThunderBYTE AntiVirus Utilities was made.

For a long time now I am working with an outdated AntiVirus from ThunderBYTE, but now my discs with the antivirus program  of ThunderBYTE are defective and I can not install it anymore. I also do not know how to obtain a new one as I did not know of any new website. By coincidence I found your site but I do not find any ThunderBYTE Antivirus software! How can I download it? Personally, I think ThunderBYTE is an extremely good antivirus program and that is the reason I like to have it again. Can you help me to get it? I would be very grateful.

********@wanadoo.be (name of sender removed for privacy reasons)

Similar messages still arrive from time to time.

Moral of this story: switch to the successor of ThunderBYTE AntiVirus Utilities: [ Norman Virus Control ]. Even the best AntiVirus software will get outdated if it is not updated on a frequent basis.

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