Multiscanning is running multiple anti-malware or antivirus engines concurrently. Traditionally, only a single engine can actively scan a system at a given time. Using multiple engines simultaneously can result in conflicts that lead to system freezes and application failures. [1] [2] However, a number of security applications and application suites have optimized multiple engines to work together.
Testing agencies published results showing that no single antivirus engine is 100% effective against every malware threat. [3] [4] Because each engine uses different scanning methodologies and updates their malware definition files at various frequencies, using multiple engines increases the likelihood of catching malware before it can affect a system or network. [5]