Computer viruses and malware aren't going anywhere. That's a given. If anything, criminals are becoming craftier in how they ship their unwanted cargo. Sophos Head of Security Paul Ducklin believes this is a good sign. It means researchers are doing their job.
Writing at the Sophos Naked Security blog, Ducklin argued that critics who claim anti-virus software just can't hack it when it comes to modern threats are missing the point.
"You can apply [the notion that anti-virus isn't good enough] to any individual security technology, considered all on its own," Ducklin explained. "For example, you wouldn't rely entirely on a packet-filtering network firewall to protect you from viruses, for example. You wouldn't rely entirely on a spam filter to stop inbound malicious documents. And so on."
Ducklin maintained that while far from a panacea, competent anti-virus software still plays an important role.
"A decent endpoint anti-virus is agnostic about the source of a threat -- incursions by email, web, USB, P2P etc. are all handled in a similar way," said Ducklin. "A decent endpoint anti-virus actually keeps watch for much more than just known malware."
Ironically, the expert believes the rampant creation of new malware and trojans means anti-virus companies are doing something right, even though they're contributing to a vicious, but necessary cycle.
"This, paradoxically, is why the rate of appearance of new malware is increasing. Not because the crooks are getting smarter, but because today's anti-virus products are making life harder for them," said Ducklin.
Proving that claim is as simple as looking how malware makers have recently targeted smartphones. Android in particular continues to be an easy mark, with no end in sight. Both Kaspersky Labs and McAfee have predicted things could get worse still for the popular mobile OS.
