Call to change PC security tools

[JMH]

An initiative has been kicked off that hopes to improve the way PC users are protected from viruses.

It will create and distribute a small program that will gather statistics on how quickly security companies find and remove malicious code.

The figures will reveal if users are being left vulnerable and for how long as well as rank response times.

But some experts say such simple tools could give a false impression and may prove hard to develop.

"In the last two to three years we have seen more individual pieces of malware than in the entire 30 years before that time," said Mr Chris Bolin, a former chief technology officer at McAfee who is now head of UK security firm Prevx, which is trying to start the initiative.

Response time

The typical way that anti-virus companies work, said Mr Bolin, was by analysing novel threats, creating a signature file for it and then distributing that to customers to spot when the novel threat turns up.

But, said Mr Bolin, the sheer number of viruses was threatening to overwhelm this system.

Estimates suggest that hi-tech criminals are pumping out about 60,000 individual pieces of malware every day. The number of daily variants was only going to grow, said Mr Bolin, and current methods were rapidly going to be overwhelmed.

More -
BBC News - Call to change PC security tools

 

[Lemur]

This article makes me think about a report I heard on National Public Radio the other day. It said we would NOT be ready for online voting for at least another 10 years, due to threats from expert "bad guys".