Windows 7: Anti-malware software is not all that useless.

On Tuesday I went to Milan to the first day of Security Summit. It is the most important Italian meeting about IT security. It ends today.

It is always a pleasure to meet other people working in the security industry, and attend their conferences. While I liked the whole organization and all the discussed topics, I'm quite perplexed about how the malware and anti-malware topics have been exposed.

One of the presentations in the afternoon was related to the malware evolution and new threats. At the beginning the topic has been quickly moved to the uselessness of anti-virus security solutions, by explaining that they are not only unnecessary and badly written, but they actually catch only 10% of malware out there.

I was really shocked about how a tricky and important topic like anti-malwares has been exposed. The shared point of view is that anti-virus solutions are useless and they do exist only because they allow their developers to gain more money.

I strongly disagree with this concept and this point of view shows there is a poor knowledge about current malware panorama and how new antivirus technologies indeed work.

Used concept has been the following: antiviruses are useless, because people must be educated before everything; then to take malwares far from your PC you can just use right system policies.