My Norton AV gives me a monthly "status report" that summarizes every "detection," "blocking," "quarantine," or "removal" it's done, in a popup of its "scan status" report. The also have recently included links to their own "newsletters" on particular problems that have been recently common.

A recent report was that some of the malware currently being seen is not completely removed by usable antimalware programs, and some may be "completely invisible" to common scans.

They - and quite probably other AV makers - have produced a couple of new "separate programs" for the problems that can't be handled by the usual methods.

One of the programs does essentially a "deep scan" to look in unusual places and for things hidden from other methods. This kind of scan can't be used as part of a maintenance AV program because it's extremely invasive and machine settings may have to be changed (by the program) in order to access all the nooks and crannies, and "performance after scanning" may be affected.

A second special purpose program is a "deep clean" process, but the warning is that it is a "last resort" since it may be forced to (permanently) disable other programs on the computer if there's even a hint of malware anywhere in their files - and data is likely to be lost.

Both of these special purpose programs have to override normal system security in order to access all the places where malware might hide, so you might think of them as "malware for finding malware."

Unfortunately, some of the malware designers have bigger budgets than the governments in some of the places from which they operate, and they can afford to hire very clever people. Some of them might even be as smart as you (think you) are, so the best defense is still "JUST DON"T CLICK." It's often put as "don't click if in doubt" but I'd add "and always doubt anything YOU DIDN'T PLAN ON DOING BEFORE the opportunity to click appeared."

John