Does your anti-virus software really work?
Joanne Rutkowska was 11 when she got her first computer, “It was the PC AT-286, 2MB of RAM and 40MB of hard disk, and it ran with blazing speed of about 16 MHz…” she says. Rutkowska is now a security researcher ” focusing on stealth technology and system compromise detection” at COSEINC, a Singapore-based IT security company.
Earlier this year, Rutkowska created a stir at the Black Hat Briefings when she demonstrated how to infect Windows Vista with a rootkit and introduced Blue Pill, a new concept that uses AMD’s SVM/Pacifica virtualization technology to create “100 percent undetectable malware.”
In the interview with eWeek, Rutkowska reveals the reality of stealth malware threats and why the anti-virus industry is a leg short. On her primary machine Rutkowska runs Windows XP x64 and doesn’t “use any anti-virus products to secure any of [her] machines.” The reason, as she states, “I just don’t like their approach, which is to block only known malware.” She also says that “they all concentrate on finding ‘the bad’ instead of verifying that system is in a ‘good’ shape.”
The combatative measures Rutkowska takes against possible intrusions and infection is quite simple, she is “careful when surfing” and will “never open suspicious e-mails or PowerPoint/PDF documents.” I think all people should take these measures, but reality is that the majority of people do not take even these simple precautions. How about you?
Visit Joanne Rutkowska’s site Invisible Things
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January 22nd, 2007 at 11:51 am