Dark Reading: Next-Generation Malware: Changing The Game In Security's Operations Center Sophisticated, automated malware attacks are spurring enterprises to shift their security technology, staffing strategies

Oct 15, 2012
By Tim Wilson

In a quiet, secluded spot, a malware author is creating a new piece of code that no antivirus tool has ever seen before. It's not a particularly creative exploit -- just a slight tweak on an existing Trojan -- but it should be enough to bypass the signature-based defenses of the company he's targeting.

Your company.

In other cases, there's no human author involved -- the malware is being created by an automated program that continually tweaks known attacks in new ways, so that they won't be recognized by antivirus or intrusion prevention systems (IPS). Researchers estimate that, across the Internet, an average of 70,000 to 100,000 new malware samples are created and distributed each day, often through automated, "polymorphic" programs that automatically alter malware into a new, previously unseen form factor each time it is delivered.

Today's malware is becoming both more prolific and more sophisticated -- and the problem is growing more acute every day.

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