What mutating spyware reveals about the future of security
According to a July report from the Pew Internet & Americal Life Project, more than 90% of Internet users have changed their online behavior to avoid spyware. That is a remarkably high level of awareness, considering the relative newness of the spyware threat.
The study generally reports on consumer behavior, but as you know, spyware is hardly a stranger to the enterprise. And while it's getting increasing attention from IT managers, it deserves another, closer look. Current developments in spyware engineering foreshadow dangerous challenges for enterprise security. Here's why.
Spyware is literally evolving -- mutating in the wild to avoid detection. This is an ominous trend, and it's getting worse: Cases of mutating spyware have more than doubled since the start of the year. And this is true mutation, unlike simple polymorphism. Impressive though it may sound, a polymorphic threat simply has multiple strains or chooses its name or location at install time, normally from a preset list. Most "mutating" malware in recent years has used these primitive techniques, which even basic signature-based solutions could handle with simple heuristics.
