Malware – The News Arms Race?

This morning my colleague Tom Parsons from our Dublin Security Response team was quoted in a BBC article talking about the huge rise in malware in recent years and the journalist was speculating the battle between the cybercriminals and the security companies was akin to an arms race.

Certainly the numbers of new pieces of malware on the web these days is simply eye-watering. Symantec’s own Internet Security Threat Report recently reported that during 2008 Symantec created 1,656,227 new malicious code signatures. That’s a massive rise even on malware in 2007 which was in itself a big number!

If it is an arms race, for sure the security companies are pushing ahead with new technology to help them keep ahead of the threats and protect their customers. New approached like White Listing – to approve certain software to run on your PC rather than trying to blacklist the bad stuff – heuristics and behavioural techniques are already making their way into today’s security software and we’ll see a lot more of that in the years to come.

If it is a war, it’s a war which the security world is continually working hard to find new techniques and software to win. But it’s also essential that everyone else does their part too. The sad fact is that a lot of threats are spread by people not taking adequate steps to protect themselves. Just because you have insurance on your house, you can’t just leave your front door open and expect a burglar to walk by. Make sure your software is up-to-date; that you receive the regular updates and patches; and don’t click on links and emails from people you don’t know.

May 20, 2009 | Filed Under Phishing, Reputation, cyber-crime, security 

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