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THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

REPORT

«Antivirus software»

Prepared by: Rakhimzhanova Aliya

Group: 206

Scientific Advisor: Sultanbekova A.

Almaty, 2010

Plan

1. Antivirus

2. History

3. Identification methods

3.1 Signature based detection

3.2 Heuristic-based detection

3.3 File emulation

4. Kind of antivirus

5. Effectiveness

6. Popularity

Conclusion

References

1. Antivirus

Antivirus is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses. Such programs may also prevent and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware.

A variety of strategies are typically employed. Signature-based detection involves searching for known patterns of data within executable code. However, it is possible for a user to be infected with new malware for which no signature exists yet. To counter such so-called zero-day threats, heuristics can be used. One type of heuristic approach, generic signatures, can identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses by looking for known malicious code (or slight variations of such code) in files. Some antivirus software can also predict what a file will do if opened/run by emulating it in a sandbox and analyzing what it does to see if it performs any malicious actions. If it does, this could mean the file is malicious.

However, no matter how useful antivirus software is, it can sometimes have drawbacks. Antivirus software can degrade computer performance. Inexperienced users may have trouble understanding the prompts and decisions that antivirus software presents them with. An incorrect decision may lead to a security breach. If the antivirus software employs heuristic detection (of any kind), success depends on achieving the right balance between false positives and false negatives. False positives can be as destructive as false negatives. Finally, antivirus software generally runs at the highly trusted kernel level of the operating system, creating a potential avenue of attack.

In addition to the drawbacks mentioned above, the effectiveness of antivirus software has also been researched and debated. One study found that the detection success of major antivirus software dropped over a one-year period.

2. History

Most of the computer viruses that were written in the early and mid '80s were limited to self-reproduction and had no specific damage routine built into the code (research viruses). That changed when more and more programmers became acquainted with virus programming and released viruses that manipulated or even destroyed data on infected computers. It then became necessary to think about antivirus software to fight these malicious viruses.

There are competing claims for the innovator of the first antivirus product. Possibly the first publicly documented removal of a computer virus in the wild was performed by Bernd Fix in 1987.

Fred Cohen, who published one of the first academic papers on computer viruses in 1984, started to develop strategies for antivirus software in 1988 that were picked up and continued by later antivirus software developers.

Also in 1988 a mailing list named VIRUS-L was initiated on the BITNET/EARN network where new viruses and the possibilities of detecting and eliminating viruses were discussed. Some members of this mailing list like John McAfee or Eugene Kaspersky later founded software companies that developed and sold commercial antivirus software.

Before Internet connectivity was widespread, viruses were typically spread by infected floppy disks. Antivirus software came into use, but was updated relatively infrequently. During this time, virus checkers essentially had to check executable files and the boot sectors of floppy and hard disks. However, as internet usage became common, initially through the use of modems, viruses spread throughout the Internet.

Over the years antivirus software had to check many more types of files (and not only executable files) for several reasons:

· Powerful macros used in word processor applications, such as Microsoft Word, presented a further risk. Virus writers started using the macros to write viruses embedded within documents. This meant that computers could now also be at risk from infection by documents with hidden attached macros as programs.

· Later email programs, in particular Microsoft Outlook Express and Outlook, were vulnerable to viruses embedded in the email body itself. Now, a user's computer could be infected by just opening or previewing a message.

As always-on broadband connections became the norm and more and more viruses were released, it became essential to update virus checkers more and more frequently. Even then, a new zero-day virus could become widespread before antivirus companies released an update to protect against it.

3. Identification methods

There are several methods which antivirus software can use to identify malware.

3.1 Signature based detection

Signature based detection is the most common method. To identify viruses and other malware, antivirus software compares the contents of a file to a dictionary of virus signatures. Because viruses can embed themselves in existing files, the entire file is searched, not just as a whole, but also in pieces.

3.2 Heuristic-based detection

Heuristic-based detection, like malicious activity detection, can be used to identify unknown viruses.

3.3 File emulation

File emulation is another heuristic approach. File emulation involves executing a program in a virtual environment and logging what actions the program performs. Depending on the actions logged, the antivirus software can determine if the program is malicious or not and then carry out the appropriate disinfection actions.

4. Kind of antivirus

antivirus computer malware signature

Ad-Aware Pro Antivirus + Antispyware

AhnLab V3 AntiVirus

AOL Active Virus Shield

Avast!

Avast! Pro Antivirus и Internet Security

AVG Anti-Virus

AVG Anti-Virus Free

Avira AntiVir Personal

Avira AntiVir Premium

AVZ

BitDefender

BitDefender Free Edition

BullGuard

CA Anti-Virus

Clam AntiVirus

ClamWin

Comodo Internet Security

Coranti Multi-Engine

"Доктор Веб"

ESET NOD32

ESET Smart Security 4

Faronics Antivirus

F-Prot

F-Secure

G Data Software

Intego VirusBarrier

Антивирус Касперского

McAfee VirusScan

Основы безопасности Microsoft

Норман

Panda Antivirus

Panda Cloud Antivirus

Sophos Anti-Virus

Symantec AntiVirus Нортон / Нортон 360

Trend Micro Security Интернет

TrustPort Antivirus

Vba32Antivirus

Emsisoft борьбе с вредоносным ПО

Cisco Security Agent

DriveSentry

eSafe

nProtect

Rising AntiVirus

Windows Live OneCare

5. Effectiveness

Studies in December 2007 have shown that the effectiveness of antivirus software has decreased in recent years, particularly against unknown or zero day attacks. The German computer magazine c't found that detection rates for these threats had dropped from 40-50% in 2006 to 20-30% in 2007. At that time, the only exception was the NOD32 antivirus, which managed a detection rate of 68 percent.

The problem is magnified by the changing intent of virus authors. Some years ago it was obvious when a virus infection was present. The viruses of the day, written by amateurs, exhibited destructive behavior or pop-ups. Modern viruses are often written by professionals, financed by criminal organizations.

Traditional antivirus software solutions run virus scanners on schedule, on demand and some run scans in real time. If a virus or malware is located the suspect file is usually placed into a quarantine to terminate its chances of disrupting the system. Traditional antivirus solutions scan and compare against a publicised and regularly updated dictionary of malware otherwise known as a blacklist. Some antivirus solutions have additional options that employ an heuristic engine which further examines the file to see if it is behaving in a similar manner to previous examples of malware. A new technology utilized by a few antivirus solutions is whitelisting, this technology first checks if the file is trusted and only questioning those that are not.

Independent testing on all the major virus scanners consistently shows that none provide 100% virus detection. The best ones provided as high as 99.6% detection, while the lowest provide only 81.8% in tests conducted in February 2010. All virus scanners produce false positive results as well, identifying benign files as malware.

Although methodologies may differ, some notable independent quality testing agencies include AV-Comparatives, ICSA Labs, West Coast Labs, VB100 and other members of the AMTSO (Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization).

6. Popularity

A survey by Symantec from 2009 suggests that a third of small to medium sized business do not use antivirus protection; whereas more than 80% of home users have some kind of antivirus installed.

On 7 July 2010 OPSWAT issued an antivirus market share report based on endpoint detections which suggested that the majority of endpoint antivirus market share was held by free products like Avast!, Avira and AVG.

Conclusion

In my opinion an antivirus it is very important program for the computer. Which facilitates our work in the computer. Because it automatic is updated and deleted the damaged files.

References

History of viruses, Kaspersky Lab Virus list, wikipedia.org ,

List of antivirus software.

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