Anti-Virus Software Programmers Losing Battle To Viruses

Ron Clarkson, Senior Vice-President of CoreTrace Corporation, said that since malware writers swapped global infamy for bulky profits, they had become a bigger problem to deal with. Hackers remained ahead of their main opponent as the game of cat-and-mouse between hackers and anti-virus software programmers, as reported by Infosecurity Magazine on August 12, 2010.

Malware has not only got sneakier, but has multiplied in terms of volume and variety at an uncontrollable rate.

There has been a continuous cat-and-mouse game between hackers and anti-virus software programmers for the last twenty years. Whenever one side would come up with some innovation, other side would immediately overshadow it with its own innovation. Most of the times, the clash remained a benign competition between hackers looking for credentials and software programmers to counter-attack them.

Although security companies have detected and countered these sophisticated attacks with new technologies, security experts like Golden Richard III, a Computer Professor at the University of New Orleans, said that the anti-virus software programmers were losing the fight, as reported by the oncoretraceblogs on August 10, 2010.

Viruses are winning as the defense doesn't work efficiently. Moreover, hackers are really smart and have got lot of resources.

Commenting on the issue, Danny Quist, malware Specialist at LLC, said modern malware used several techniques to hide itself. Even the most advanced version of anti-virus software could only detect infections between 40 and 70 percent, according to the information on Technewsdaily on August 02, 2010.

He further stated that some malware packed themselves into a safe appearing code that an antivirus program would only detect as malicious when it was run. However, it would be too late by then. Another malware would mix up its own code, and demolish the markers that anti-virus software searched for. Interestingly, some malware would even contain no dangerous code at all, but would automatically download the harmful software from the website, after it had passed an anti-virus check. Many other categories of malware did all those things and more.

Security experts advises users to completely safeguard a computer against these malware attacks. They should practice safe internet browsing techniques, apart from installing anti-virus software.

Related article: Anti-Spam Laws may not Solve the Problem

» SPAMfighter News - 19-08-2010

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