Fighting malware and spam

A practical understanding of malware security

Greg Day McAfee

In the past decade we have seen the time between first discovery of attack and widespread customer infection shrinking. Today, the term ‘zero-day attack’ has become a major topic of discussion for security teams, as it serves to both highlight a weakness in the traditional first line of defence against malicious code attacks; the signature update, while at the same time prompting re-evaluation of what is required to maintain an effective barrier.

With a plethora of security products available on the market, each offering their own unique value, we must each look to understand in what direction to evolve our security strategies. To achieve this we must understand how attacks function, what their objectives are, and how they will impact our businesses both directly and indirectly.

The aim of this session will be to show, via demonstrations, the methodology used by today’s attackers. We will then discuss and demonstrate alternative security solutions such as intrusion prevention (IPS), personal firewalls and behavioural tools to understand the value they bring as malware defence tools. Do they replace or complement our existing protection?