Better Security Strategies Needed to Counter Today’s Malware

The Cyber Security Threat landscape is evolving fast. Really fast. As a result, traditional anti-malware tools, which rely on traditional techniques, are no longer proving useful. Modern-day malware uses sophisticated methods of attacking – like polymorphic attacks, fileless attacks, script-based attacks etc., – and therefore you need an equally sophisticated protection tool to counter them. You need anti-malware tools which can detect the subtlest of attacks that don’t even leave any fingerprints behind them.

So, what you do think the modern-day anti-malware tool should contain? Here are some suggestions. Your anti-malware tool should be able to:

1. Fight against Polymorphic Malware: This is a malware which constantly changes (or morphs) itself, making it difficult for anti-malware programs to detect them. Most modern-day malware prevention tool come equipped with the technology needed to detect such deceptive malware. Therefore you should always select tools which help you counter such attacks.

2. Fight against Fileless Malware: Another malware which affects PCs without leaving any trace of the attack  is called fileless malware. It operates by affecting your PC’s memory, that is, RAM. Dince RAM is volatile, it remains in an active state as long as users don’t reboot their systems. Most modern-day anti-malware tools are equipped to counter this type of attack which.

3. Fight against Script-based Malware: You also have malware which uses Windows-scripting engines such as Powershell or Microsoft’s HTML Application Host to spread itself. If your detection systems can’t see the script execution or understand the command-line arguments, you can’t figure out this type of malware. This is another feature to look out for when buying anti-malware tools.

4. Fight against Ransomware Attacks: You probably know what ransomware is by now considering how often it’s been in the headlines recently. Ransomware is a type of malware which locks out computers and demands ransom from the users in order to unlock the locked system. You need an anti-malware tool that can counter ransomware attacks, period.

5. Facilitate Whitelisting: Whitelisting is the process of allowing or deciding which apps should be run within a network and who should be allowed access to it and when. Depending on the organizational needs, an admin can tweak this list to allow or disallow specific apps. Though affected by false positives, whitelisting is better than blacklisting because the former offers more security via default-deny approach. Therefore always select malware tools which facilitate whitelisting.

Conclusion:

It’s obvious that fighting modern malware isn’t going to be easy. At the same time, it’s not impossible. Therefore it’s about selecting a tool that is equipped to deal with modern cyberthreats. It’s about making – and investing – in a wise decision, taking into account the above-mentioned points (and others which you can find online), which can go a long way in combating the diverse world of modern day malware.