Una carrera interminable

In August 2009, PandaLabs reported receiving "nearly 37,000 samples of new viruses, worms, Trojans and other types of Internet threats" per day. And to ensure it keeps one step ahead of antivirus signatures, 52 percent of the new malware morphs every 24 hours, replaced by new and still undetectable variants. As Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLab explains, this continual onslaught of new malware causes "a never-ending race which, unfortunately, the (attackers) are still winning."

To make matters worse, not only is much of today's malware initially undetectable by antivirus scanners, it may go unnoticed by its victims as well. Thanks to rootkits, alternate data streams, and other programming trickery, the majority of modern day malware lies well hidden on infected systems.

The malware and reporting problem is exacerbated by the rapid morphing of modern new malware. Long gone are the days when a specific threat could be described with a specific set of symptomatic files, folders, and registry keys to ferret out. Today, chances are no two infections are exactly alike.

These challenges make antivirus more necessary than ever - but antivirus alone is not a panacea. Following are a few recommendations to help bolster the effectiveness of your antivirus software.

• The majority of today's new malware is pushed via the Web, thus a key part of your security posture should be centered around Web-Based Malware Prevention. If you do nothing else, at least use NoScript (which works only with the Firefox browser).
• Firewalls are a must. Either enable your operating system firewall or upgrade to a standalone firewall. For recommendations, see: Best Free Firewalls for Windows.
• Patch. Patch. Patch. Windows is not the bad guy. Today, the vast majority of exploits center around Adobe products such as Reader and Flash. Either find suitable replacements for Adobe products or keep a constant watch for patches to help protect you. Secunia Software Advisor is a free service that helps you see which patches are missing from your computer.

It took 20 years (1986-2006) for malware to reach the one million mark. Since then, the rate of malware has been doubling every year, and is now threatening to double every six months. Being proactive and taking responsibility for your own security will go along ways towards helping you avoid the onslaught and helping all of us ensure the bad guys don't win.