Anti-spyware is dead! Long live anti-malware!

The other day, I came across a blog post by Ryan Naraine titled “The anti-spyware market that never really existed is officially dead” (http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=618). As Agnitum has been active in this “non-existent” market, I felt it was important to comment on the whole issue of anti-xware.

As far as we are concerned here at Agnitum, the author is technically correct; it’s hard to separate the function of anti-spyware from anti-virus from the user’s perspective – they are both problems that need to be removed from your PC as soon as possible, right? But it’s a big jump from that to stating that an entire multimillion market has never existed except in the minds of software marketers.

Traditionally, anti-virus vendors paid little or no attention to malware such as Trojans, backdoors and other non-viral malware. This is why anti-Trojan products like our own Tauscan came into being. Then along came more “successful” non-viral malware in the form of keyloggers, password-stealers, and other spyware, and thus was born the anti-spyware market.
Not surprisingly, as the number of different “xwares” grew, users were getting a little tired of having to buy a new product for every threat. So the move towards integrated threat protection in the form of security suites that address all the different threats in a single product is really the result of a natural evolution.

Today’s cyberthreat problems are the result of a similar evolutionary process. You rarely see a standalone virus or worm any more – you’re much more likely to see a worm with embedded spyware which scrolls ads and generates pop-ups, or a rootkit that installs keylogging capabilities on your hard drive. Security product vendors’ drive to keep up with the malware development pace is reflected in the companies’ product histories. In Agnitum’s case, we started by fighting Trojans, extended our capabilities to tackle the spyware problem, and now we protect against viruses and mail worms as well. Because different threats do actually require different types of research expertise, we maintain two anti-malware labs – one for viruses and worms in Hungary at our partner VirusBuster’s facility and one in St. Petersburg for spyware, Trojans, and other non-viral threats.

To take Ryan’s concept to its natural conclusion, I would say that “anti-spyware is dead, long live anti-malware” is really the way the market is going.

The fact is that all cyber-borne threats are evolving and becoming more multi-purpose, and security vendors must meet the challenge. Total PC protection actually goes beyond “anti-xware” to incorporate the need for firewalls, intrusion prevention, host protection, and zero-day attack detection too.

Zero-days are one of the biggest threats facing computer users today, in part because the old ways of detecting threats (with signatures) simply cannot work against brand-new threats – between the discovery of the threat and the creation of the signature, hundreds of thousands of computers can be infected. That’s why it’s crucially important to include a firewall in your protection armory, along with proactive host protection to quarantine unknown threats; the traditional anti-malware product closes out the threat completely by removing those quarantined threats as soon as specific removal code is available.

Undoubtedly, the market for separate security applications will survive for some time to come, but, at the same time the majority of security vendors will move to delivering integrated solutions to make it as easy as possible for users to keep safe online.

Mikhail Penkovsky
Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing,
Agnitum

Outpost Pro 2008 product line - hot-fix ready!

Hello everyone,

As many of you have already noticed, we have two hot-fixes ready, released on October 24, 2007! Here's the list of significant bugs that have been corrected:

Outpost Firewall Pro 2008 (build 6.0.2162.205.402.266)

• Access to encrypted drives could be denied
• Empty Network Activity log
• Registration key could not be saved
• Several possible crashes

Download the new version here: http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/download.php


Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008 (build 6.0.2162.205.402.266)

• Outpost Security Suite Pro could freeze on Windows Vista with third-party antivirus software installed (KIS, NOD32, AVAST)
• Access to encrypted drives could be denied
• Empty Network Activity log
• Registration key could not be saved
• Several possible crashes

Download the new version here: http://www.agnitum.com/products/security-suite/download.php

Many thanks to everyone who's been reporting bugs and inconsistencies! Thanks for logs, info and recommendations. We really appreciate your help and time. If we'd had as much feedback during the beta-testing, we would've avoided many problems. General practice shows there is little interest in a product while it's still in beta, however, afterwards we get hundreds of complains. The readers of this blog are not to blame though, I know you've been really cooperative!

The next bug-fix is expected in a week or two. Let me admonish you a little: the results we have now are normal for a recently released software, and we're really working 24/7 to eliminate existing errors in the quickest time possible.

Thanks a lot for understanding!

Alexey Belkin

Chief Software Architect
Agnitum

Outpost Pro 2008 product line - we're finally here!

We've done it!!!

St. Petersburg, Russia: October 22, 2007; 19:32 -

Agnitum's team has released Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008 and Outpost Firewall Pro 2008 for Windows Vista and XP! Thus we've opened a new product line and reached an important milestone in our corporate history!

We'd like to share our excitement with you and, to cut the long story short, give you a chance to download the brand new products right now. Here you go! Just click on one of the boxes:

Cheers,

Alexey Belkin

Chief Software Architect

Agnitum

Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008 - release candidate!

Well, it's not all over yet, but we really deserve a full breaker of wine! After months of hard-work we've led the all-in-one Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008 for Windows Vista to the release candidate stage!

Many thanks to everyone who helped us throughout the beta-process. We really appreciate your recommendations and opinions!

The product is now fully available in English, French, German and Spanish!

Now you can take a look at the whole set of product features and novelties such as:

• Full Vista 32 and 64-bit platform support
• Internet Protocol version 6 support
• Site Blacklist feature
• Auto-learn function
• Fast User Switching support
• Web control module
• Strengthened Anti-leak
• Host Protection that now targets known rootkits
• New text-based Log Viewer
• Checking email attachments in real time
• Setting up flexible schedules for regular malware scans

Please, check what the final version will look like. The link remains the same, please download and let us know what you think! Also don't hesitate to submit discovered bugs if any!

Alexey Belkin

Chief Software Architect

Agnitum Ltd.

Web exploits – from problem to solution

I'd like to announce the availability of our October Security Insight. The article discusses the problem of web exploits and the dangers associated with them. Additionally, it details the necessary steps users should take to minimize their exposure to the risks posed by exploits.

I urge you to read this interesting material and share your ideas in the blog.

Igor Pankov
Product Marketing Manager
Agnitum Ltd.