Windows 7: Kaspersky Lab patents hardware antivirus

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces the successful patenting in the USA of a hardware-based antivirus system that effectively combats rootkits.

The new technology makes use of a hardware-based antivirus solution whose primary function is to neutralize the most widespread type of threat – malicious programs that store themselves or infect files on a computer's hard drive. The patented antivirus program scans data that is written to the hard disk, identifying and blocking malicious programs.



Patent No. 7 657 941 was registered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on 2 February, 2010. The patented technology was developed by Oleg Zaitsev, senior technology expert at Kaspersky Lab.

The patented device is installed between a drive (hard drive or SSD) and the computing unit (CPU and RAM) and is connected to the system bus or integrated into the disk controller. The hardware antivirus solution allows or blocks writing data to disk, providing threat alerts and information about its operation to the user (user dialog is possible if the hardware antivirus control utility is installed on the PC). The device can work on a standalone basis or in conjunction with a software antivirus application.
continue: Kaspersky Lab patents cutting-edge hardware antivirus solution

The patented device uses its own updateable antivirus databases that are protected from malicious code and faulty records during updates. Since the device has a CPU and RAM of its own, it does not consume any resources on the computer to which it is connected. A separate power supply can be connected to it if necessary.