Best practices for database updates
March 5, 2024
ID 218298
The best practices listed here help you maintain a consistent level of security in Kaspersky Scan Engine.
Avoid using an out-of-date or extremely out-of-date database. If Kaspersky Scan Engine is not up to date, maximum protection cannot be guaranteed.
Do not download updates to an empty directory on regular basis
In some cases, Kaspersky public update servers do not contain some of the components to update. Therefore, we recommend that you do not regularly update databases from scratch (download the anti-virus database from an update server to an empty directory). If you do, Kaspersky Scan Engine may not start or may work incorrectly. Make sure that the target directory to which the updates are downloaded contains an existing anti-virus database. If you have problems with updating an existing anti-virus database, you can try using the anti-virus database from the distribution kit instead.
Schedule a daily update
You must run the update procedure and obtain new malware definitions and updates for modules at least once an hour.
This measure reduces the risk of a scenario where KSN becomes unavailable due to an expired KSN encryption key file.
The KSN encryption key file is used to secure the communication between Kaspersky Scan Engine and KSN servers. This file is updated during the regular anti-malware database update procedure. By default, Kaspersky Scan Engine checks the status of the KSN encryption key file during every update and if the current KSN encryption key file is expired, a new key is downloaded during the update.
The following classification must be used when considering updates.
Database up-to-dateness classification
Anti-malware database is considered | If the update was last run |
|---|---|
Up to date | Less than one day ago. |
Out of date | Less than three days ago. |
Extremely out of date | More than a week ago. |
Use the reduced anti-malware databases kit
You can use the reduced anti-malware databases kit if you want to reduce the hard disk space that Kaspersky Scan Engine uses.
Use the anti-malware databases backup
We recommend that you turn on the anti-malware databases backup. If Kaspersky Scan Engine cannot initialize after some update, it can restore the anti-malware databases from backup.
