How can technology prevents virus outbreaks?

Antivirus software can prevent most, but not all virus infections on a computer. This is because antivirus programs have one major disadvantage: they detect viruses using a large database of the signatures of every known virus. Because new viruses come out daily or even hourly, antivirus companies are falling behind malware writers. One report stated that the Symantec antivirus company had to create 36 new signatures every 7 seconds in order to keep up with malware writers.