Combating Malware: Leveraging the Power of a Planet

Combating Malware:
Leveraging the Power of a Planet
www.pandasecurity.comCombating Malware: Leveraging the Power of a Planet 2
Combating Malware:
Leveraging the Power of a Planet
Executive Summary
The amount of malicious software (or malware) that is being released in the world is increasing at an alarming rate. To combat this threat, most antivirus and anti-malware solution vendors are relying on the creation of signatures to protect users. But creating signatures can be a time-intensive process. As a result, current solutions are proving to be much less effective against the proliferation of threats in circulation. Even users protected by solutions with the latest signature databases are frequently infected by active malware. Complementary approaches and technologies must be developed and implemented in order to raise the effectiveness of these solutions to adequate levels.
Collective Intelligence offers a radically different approach to security. This approach is based on exhaustive remote, centralized, and real-time knowledge about malware and non-malicious applications maintained through the automatic processing of all scanned elements. The Collective Intelligence approach provides the ability to maximize malware detection capabilities, while at the same time, minimizing the resource and bandwidth consumption of protected systems.
One of the benefits of this approach is the automation of the entire malware detection and protection cycle (collection, analysis, classification, and remediation). However automation in and of itself is not enough to tackle the malware cat-and-mouse game. In addition to the large volumes of malware, enterprises also face targeted attacks. Response time in these scenarios cannot be handled by automation of signature files alone. Collective Intelligence provides visibility and knowledge into the processes running on all of the computers scanned. This broad visibility of the community - in addition to automation - is what delivers the ability to tackle not only the large volumes of new malware, but also targeted attacks.
This paper examines the current malware landscape and reviews current emerging malware techniques and design. Topics include the first generation of security solutions - antivirus; the second generation- anti-malware; the third generation - proactive technologies; and finally the fourth generation - collective intelligence solutions.
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Table of Contents
The Malware Landscape.......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Antivirus Laboratories Are Under Attack....................................................................................................................... 4
Malware Techniques and Design..................................................................................................................................... 5
Targeted Attacks: Staying Below the Radar............................................................................................................. 6
Malware QA Testing.......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Rootkits and Sandbox Detection Techniques......................................................................................................... 6
Runtime-Packers................................................................................................................................................................ 7
Botnets.................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
Staged Infection Vectors................................................................................................................................................. 8
Malware 2.0.......................................................................................................................................................................... 8
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