Is Standard Antivirus Software Able to Contain Modern Malware Threats?

Viruses and virus authors have become smarter and well-directed to affect more PC than what they had been doing 10 years ago from now. Today all variants of the malware are active in their capacity to breach the security of even a decently protected PC. The roles and responsibilities of the modern antivirus have become tougher than ever and they need to be highly accurate and appropriate in their approach to prevent online threats.

 At times discussion about the ability of standard antivirus in containing modern malware threats gathers momentum. Virus authors are now using the latest technology and coding practices in developing and designing threats. They constantly update the programs which they use for targeting your PCs.

 A survey conducted by the next gen firewall vendor Palo Alto Networks Inc, dubbed as Modern Malware Review brought some path breaking findings. During the survey it monitored and examined the behavior of a malware through its lifecycle. Analysts examined the malware activities starting from the time it gets into the network to the time when it starts generating outgoing web traffic.

 Some of the key findings of the survey are discussed hereunder:

 Around 94 percent of the undetected malware which entered into the network was carried through web browsing or web proxies around 70 percent of malware left traces while releasing traffic or payload that could be traced by security software and around 40 percent of new malware are in fact the repackaged versions of the existing code.

 Some more findings of the survey include:

 FTP is the leading as well as highly used threat vector for all existing malware. It is so effective that around 95 percent of malware has been delivered using FTP and surprisingly antivirus programs were not able to detect these malware for at least 30 days.

 The survey unveiled that modern malware can go undetected on various devices. Around 30 different techniques have been discovered in the Modern Malware Review that successfully evaded security solutions. Moreover, behavior of half of the malware examined during the survey was designed to go undetected and beat security solutions.

 As security solution providers now understand that most of the malware is repackaged versions of the existing or old codes for example Zeus botnets, they can conveniently rely on a host of indicators. These indicators can be acquired through analytics and other technologies that help security solutions identify the threat in its early stage and provide enough time to develop security policies to handle the problem effectively.

 It can be safely implied on the basis of the survey findings that the security of PCs at organizations are facing fresh threats on account of increased sophisticated threats. These threats are constantly trying to breach their network security. In the present scenario, organizations need to review their security policies which are majorly based on the traditional antivirus and firewall solutions. They need to consider further enhancements to their infrastructure to successfully fight out the increase in the number and intensity of threats that can infiltrate their network.

 So now for most of the individuals and organizations looking beyond the traditional antivirus programs has become a necessity if they want to be protected from the modern malware.