All virus scanners produce false positive results as well, identifying benign files as malware.
· Although methodologies may differ, some notable independent quality testing agencies include AV-Comparatives, ICSA Labs, West Coast Labs, VB100 and other members of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization.
· New viruses
· Most popular anti-virus programs are not very effective against new viruses, even those that use non-signature-based methods that should detect new viruses. The reason for this is that the virus designers test their new viruses on the major anti-virus applications to make sure that they are not detected before releasing them into the wild.
· Some new viruses, particularly ransomware, use polymorphic code to avoid detection by virus scanners. Jerome Segura, a security analyst with ParetoLogic, explained:
· “ It's something that they miss a lot of the time because this type of [ransomware virus] comes from sites that use a polymorphism, which means they basically randomize the file they send you and it gets by well-known antivirus products very easily. I've seen people firsthand getting infected, having all the pop-ups and yet they have antivirus software running and it's not detecting anything. It actually can be pretty hard to get rid of, as well, and you're never really sure if it's really gone. When we see something like that usually we advise to reinstall the operating system or reinstall backups. ”
· A proof of concept malware has shown how new viruses could use the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to avoid detection from anti-virus software. The potential success of this involves bypassing the CPU in order to make it much harder for security researchers to analyse the inner workings of such malware.
· Rootkits
· The detection of rootkits are a major challenge for anti-virus programs. Rootkits are extremely difficult to detect and if undetected, rootkits have full administrative access to the computer and are invisible to users, so that they will not be shown in the list of running processes in the task manager. Rootkits can modify the inner workings of the operating system and tamper with antivirus programs.
· Damaged files
· Files which have been damaged by computer viruses are normally damaged beyond recovery. Anti-virus software removes the virus code from the file during disinfection, but this does not always restore the file to its undamaged state. In such circumstances, damaged files can only be restored from existing backups.
· Firmware issues
· Active anti-virus software can interfere with a firmware update process.Any writeable firmware in the computer can be infected by malicious code.This is a major concern, as an infected BIOS could require the actual BIOS chip to be replaced to ensure the malicious code is completely removed.Anti-virus software is not effective at protecting firmware and the motherboard BIOS from infection.
· Other methods
· A command-line virus scanner, Clam AV 0.95.2, running a virus signature definition update, scanning a file and identifying a Trojan
· Installed antivirus software running on an individual computer is only one method of guarding against viruses. Other methods are also used, including cloud-based antivirus, firewalls and on-line scanners.
· Cloud antivirus
· Cloud antivirus is a technology that uses lightweight agent software on the protected computer, while offloading the majority of data analysis to the provider's infrastructure.
· One approach to implementing cloud antivirus involves scanning suspicious files using multiple antivirus engines. This approach was proposed by an early implementation of the cloud antivirus concept called CloudAV. CloudAV was designed to send programs or documents to a network cloud where multiple antivirus and behavioral detection programs are used simultaneously in order to improve detection rates. Parallel scanning of files using potentially incompatible antivirus scanners is achieved by spawning a virtual machine per detection engine and therefore eliminating any possible issues. CloudAV can also perform "retrospective detection," whereby the cloud detection engine rescans all files in its file access history when a new threat is identified thus improving new threat detection speed. Finally, CloudAV is a solution for effective virus scanning on devices that lack the computing power to perform the scans themselves.
· Network firewall
· Network firewalls prevent unknown programs and processes from accessing the system. However, they are not antivirus systems and make no attempt to identify or remove anything. They may protect against infection from outside the protected computer or network, and limit the activity of any malicious software which is present by blocking incoming or outgoing requests on certain TCP/IP ports. A firewall is designed to deal with broader system threats that come from network connections into the system and is not an alternative to a virus protection system.
· Online scanning
· Some antivirus vendors maintain websites with free online scanning capability of the entire computer, critical areas only, local disks, folders or files. Periodic online scanning is a good idea for those than run antivirus applications on their computers because those apps are frequently slow to catch threats. One of the first things that malicious software does in an attack is disable any existing antivirus software and sometimes the only way to know of an attack is by turning to an online resource that isn't already installed on the infected computer.
Specialist tools
· Using rkhunter to scan for rootkits on a Ubuntu Linux computer.
· Virus removal tools are available to help remove stubborn infections or certain types of infection. Examples include Trend Micro's Rootkit Buster,and rkhunter for the detection of rootkits, Avira's AntiVir Removal Tool,PCTools Threat Removal Tool,and AVG's Anit-Virus Free 2011.
· A rescue disk that is bootable, such as a CD or USB storage device, can be used to run antivirus software outside of the installed operating system, in order to remove infections while they are dormant. A bootable antivirus disk can be useful when, for example, the installed operating system is no longer bootable or has malware that is resisting all attempts to be removed by the installed antivirus software. Examples of some of these bootable disks include the Avira AntiVir Rescue System,[ PCTools Alternate Operating System Scanner, and AVG Rescue CD.The AVG Rescue CD software can also be installed onto a USB storage device, that is bootable on newer computers.
What is a computer virus?
Computer viruses are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation.
A virus might corrupt or delete data on your computer, use your email program to spread itself to other computers, or even erase everything on your hard disk.
Computer viruses are often spread by attachments in email messages or instant messaging messages. That is why it is essential that you never open email attachments unless you know who it's from and you are expecting it.
Viruses can be disguised as attachments of funny images, greeting cards, or audio and video files.
Computer viruses also spread through downloads on the Internet. They can be hidden in illicit software or other files or programs you might download.
To help avoid computer viruses, it's essential that you keep your computer current with the latest updates and antivirus tools, stay informed about recent threats, run your computer as a standard user (not as administrator), and that you follow a few basic rules when you surf the Internet, download files, and open attachments.
Once a virus is on your computer, its type or the method it used to get there is not as important as removing it and preventing further infection.
AntiVirus Protection and Programs
Preventing the spread of viruses is fairly simple. When you're surfing the Internet, download programs only from reputable shareware sites. Beware of email attachments as they may be carrying a virus "payload" - refer to Email Attachments for more information. Email text messages do not carry viruses. However, each and every attachment to an email message should always be scanned by virus detection software before execution or opening of the attachment.
Remember that you can get a virus only from running an infected program and not from just having the program on your computer. If you download a file that you're not sure about, whether it is a program or file such as an MS Word document, you can use anti-virus software to check the program or file before you use it.
The two most common anti-virus programs used today are McAfee and Norton. These are regarded as being at the top of the list with regard to protecting your computer and email from viruses.
Product Overview
ElecKey 2.0 is the complete solution for software copy protection, software licensing, and secure software distribution. ElecKey 2.0 provides software security that can protect your software applications against piracy, tampering, and reverse-engineering. In addition, the licensing capability can enable you to easily turn your software into a wide variety of distributions; for example, shareware, evaluation/trial version, node-locked license, floating network license, etc. With ElecKey 2.0, you can ensure that your software is secured when it is distributed over the Internet, as well as via any distribution methods such as DVD, CD-ROM, flash drive, etc.
ElecKey 2.0 offers a rich set of features and solutions. Many tools are provided that will give you options to protect software and manage license, and to meet all your needs and expectations. With your original software application, ElecKey can easily turn it into the protected version that is ready to be distributed and deployed to the users. The software protection tools included.
Viruses are a major cause of death and disease. Too small to be seen by light microscopy, they were first visualised about 50 years ago by electron microscopy. The preparative techniques then available allowed only crude images to be obtained. More recently rapidly frozen specimens embedded in a glass-like form of ice have allowed detailed molecular structures to be determined. This new approach depends on sophisticated computer programs to analyse the micrographs and create three dimensional maps of specimens such as viruses. Dr. Crowther will describe his work on the development of the methods and illustrate how he has applied them to hepatitis B virus, which causes liver disease and cancer in a large number of people worldwide.
Tony Crowther is a senior member of the scientific staff at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Until recently, he was Joint Head of the Structural Studies Division. He is a member of EMBO, a Fellow of Peterhouse and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
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