Malware-detecting 'sandboxing' technology no silver bullet
The security technology called "sandboxing" aims at detecting malware code by subjecting it to run in a computer-based system of one type of another to analyze it for behavior and traits indicative of malware. Sandboxing -- one alternative to traditional signature-based malware defense -- is seen as a way to spot zero-day malware and stealthy attacks in particular. While this technique often effective, it's hardly foolproof, warns a security researcher who helped establish the sandboxing technology used by startup Lastline.
When it comes to malware detection, "a sandbox shouldn't be considered a silver bullet," says Christopher Kruegel, associate professor, computer science department at University of California at Santa Barbara, who is also chief scientist at Lastline, which has its own sandboxing techniques. His admonition comes at a time when the sandbox approach, typically applied to email, is getting more attention as a way to uncover stealthy zero-day attacks intended to compromise organizations and steal data.
