The Anti-Spyware Coalition Public Workshop

Back in December of 2006 I posted an entry titled “The Spirit of Cooperation” .

Today I am attending the Anti-Spyware Coalition Public Workshop in Washington DC. It is a very satisfying feeling sitting with staunch allies in the fight against spyware, adware, and other threats. Who are these allies? You would probably call them our competitors :) You can see the agenda for the meeting at http://antispywarecoalition.org/events/jan2008.php.

“Calamity Jane” the administrator of the Lavasoft (Ad-Aware) online support forum was mentioning how many of the threats are constantly being modified so as to evade detection.

Traditional signatures are no match for the onslaught of malware we see today.  The technology that we in the anti-virus industry use to combat these threats is called “heuristics”. Rather than looking at something we know and identify it by its “fingerprint” or “signature”, heuristic scanners, such as NOD32 and ESET Smart Security attempt to identify brand new threats based upon their behaviors and characteristics.

Even with strong heuristics there is no virus scanner out there that will catch 100% of all threats, so it is essential that users learn how to surf the internet and use email safely as well.  Seatbelts are valuable safety devices, but you still have to steer!

Randy Abrams
Director of Technical Education