If you’re a meticulous computer user, you make sure to keep your antivirus software up-to-date. It’s the only way to guard your computer from viruses and malware, right? According to a recent story by MIT’s Technology Review, no.
Antivirus Software: Unreliable?
The antivirus software that we have paid for and long trusted to safeguard our information might not be effective. The technology is running a race with malware programs and malware is winning. More sophisticated and tricky to detect malware comes out every day and this is very concerning to those of us who access the Internet on a day-to-day bases.
Burned by Flame
The Technology Review story concentrates on Flame, probably the most complicated instances of malware ever discovered. According to the story, Flame has been copying documents and making recordings of audio, keystrokes, network traffic and Skype calls and taking screenshots of all this activity from the computers it has corrupted. What’s the worst part? Flame has been doing this for around two years, according to the Technology Review story. And during this time, not a single bit of security software discovered this extremely clever bit of malware.
An Industry Under Siege
As the Technology Review story says, though, Flame is far from the only malware to slip past antivirus software. Several intricate malware attacks in recent years have avoided discovery by antivirus software. The story quotes an official with an antivirus firm who labeled Flame as a major failure of the antivirus industry. What’s this mean for you? Only that your computer probably isn’t as safe as you’ve thought. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t install any antivirus software on your computer. Until the security side of the computer industry catches up, antivirus software remains your best chance of thwarting a virus attack. Just don’t be overly dumbfounded if that antivirus software fails.