We’ve been hearing it for years: antivirus software is dead. But is it true? If so, it seems to have more lives than Richard Nixon.
Rather than being the industry’s swan song, mobile devices could be its redemption opportunity.
The antivirus industry is in major transition as threats have evolved from being just the viruses and worms written to exploit holes in Windows that plagued computers in the 1990s to the exploits that target vulnerabilities in Web applications and end user gullibility today.
Many consumers fork over at least $40 for Norton AntiVirus or something similar, many more are turning to free antivirus from AVG or Avast, and yet millions of computers are still getting hit with infections daily.
While no antivirus software is perfect, the perception that AV often isn’t doing a good enough job is backed by studies. Recent benchmark tests pegged the average detection rate among major antivirus products at about 75 percent. (In one test, three out of 10 products stopped all of the original exploits, but the vendors are not named. However, the tests are to be taken with a grain of salt given the variances in testing standards.)
Antispyware and antispam have become standard in most AV, or antimalware, products as vendors have expanded their software into endpoint protection suites. And many have begun placing as much emphasis on heuristic technologies that look at the behavior or reputation of a piece of software as well as matching it to a database of malware signatures. But malware writers are adept at testing their code against the antivirus software and tweaking it until it passes through undetected.
As an alternative, some people are turning to whitelisting technologies that allow only approved programs to run on a computer. Whitelisting is akin to the closed environment of the iPhone where Apple vets every app and is largely effective in protecting the devices, said Gartner analyst John Pescatore.