Spyware, or its more correct term malware, is an ever-evolving beast of software development that today ties heavily into the desire for financial gain. Malware developers are no longer disgruntled kids writing scripts from the computer in their grandmother’s basement. Today, malware is big business, and with big business comes software sophistication. The Essentials Series: Modern Malware Threats and Countermeasures discusses how the landscape of malware code has evolved to become a major underground industry. In three articles, it discusses the classes of malware you’re sure to see in the wild today, the behaviors being exhibited by the most intelligent of the bunch, and some of the ways modern tools are employing – or developing – to combat it.

Article 1: Understanding the Modern Malware Landscape
In this first article, you will come to understand the types of malware currently seen on the Internet and in the wild. Some have grown out of vogue due to technology or end-goal reasons. Others are new to the scene. All are types you must keep off your systems. Understanding what they are and what they attempt to do will help you do just that.

Article 2 - Uncovering Modern Malware’s Technologies, Behaviors, and Practices
The second article moves away from classifications and into the actual down-and-dirty behaviors seen by the most sophisticated of malware software code today. Discussing advanced functionality such as file patching, code resuscitation, randomization, and cloaking, this article enlightens you to the behaviors you can expect out of today’s modern malware.

Article 3 - Tools and Techniques for Eliminating Modern Malware

Now that you know what malware is and how it behaves, the next step is understanding the cutting edge technologies that attempt to clean it from your systems. This final paper discusses signature- and behavioral-based approaches as well as some of the most advanced techniques used in combination by anti-malware vendors today.

Access to this expert publication is offered at no charge to readers. Available articles may be downloaded in PDF format.