The Race Between Malware and Antivirus Software

Keeping your antivirus software up to date is critical to guard your computer against malware and virus attacks, right? A recent article published by MIT's Technology Review says that it might not be as important as you think. Your computer may be more susceptible to attacks than you may want to think.


Antivirus Software: Unreliable?


The Technology Review story, actually, says that today's antivirus software can no longer be relied on to safeguard computers from the more sophisticated viruses that are being unleashed on a somewhat daily basis. The story is enough to make any computer user – even those who have armed their laptops and desktops with the latest versions of the most potent antivirus software on the market – think hard before zipping along the Internet.


Burned by Flame


One of the most complex examples of malware to date is Flame. Flame copies documents, audio, network traffic, and keystrokes made on a computer that has been infected by it. The scary thing is, Flame has been active for a couple years now. During all of this time, no security software has been created to detect this malware.


An Industry Under Siege


Wouldn’t it be nice if Flame was the only malware that could get by antivirus software? Unfortunately, this is not the case. There are quite a few that are more than difficult to detect and as soon as antivirus software gets upgraded, malware is developed that challenges it even more. This does not mean you should not take all measures available to protect your computer, like keeping your antivirus software up to date. You need to just be aware that there are viruses out there that may creep through. Hopefully the antivirus industry will eventually catch up with the development of viruses and malware.

>