Glaswegian

Is the software we're using to protect ourselves from online attacks becoming a liability?

Thierry Zoller thinks so. For the past two years, the security engineer for n.runs AG has taken a close look at the way antivirus software inspects e-mail traffic, and he thinks companies that try to improve security by checking data with more than one antivirus engine may actually be making things worse. Why? Because bugs in the "parser" software used to examine different file formats can easily be exploited by attackers, so increasing your use of antivirus software increases the chances that you could be successfully attacked.

Antivirus software must open and inspect data in hundreds, if not thousands, of file formats. One bug in the software that does this can lead to a serious security breach.


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