Generic detection
Recognising malware by its similarity to known items
Generic detection is a form of heuristics commonly implemented in anti-malware software. Items not identified exactly by means of a signature can sometimes be considered to be similar enough to a known item to merit an alert, and in many cases even a class identification.
Products alerting on generic detection will often use broader naming than with exact detection, perhaps classing something as 'fam' or '.gen' to indicate that it belong to the same family or genus but cannot be labelled as a specific variant.
