Latest statistics on malware detection from PandaLabs are alarming. The malicious codes discovered for the year 2006 were equal to those detected in the previous 15 years combined: 96,000! That would correspond to a rate of 260 examples of malware daily or one every five minutes. This is only an average, new malicious code has sometimes been detected as frequently as every 90 seconds.

Not long ago someone claimed that the computer virus era is over and that today everything is much more secure. That is incorrect: in reality we are in an unsafe internet environment riddled with imminent dangers and potential disasters.

More dangerous still than the myriad threats just a mouse click away is the simple fact that internet users are so oblivious to the danger. Accepting the installation of mysterious ‘components’; receiving numerous emails with dangerous attachments; having broadband connections open 24 hours a day, with no worries other than how long it will take to download a pirate version of our favorite film seem normal to us. Meanwhile, hackers are creating a new malicious code every five minutes.

Today’s protection systems against malicious codes base detection, primarily, on the use of signature files. When in 1998 Panda Software decided to update its signature file every day, there were those who laughed. At the time with only 10 new malicious codes created daily and requring several days to spread, they could not see the need.

So how often should signature files be updated today? Every hour? In this hour, a dozen new malicious codes will have appeared able to spread within minutes. In short, a security solution based exclusively on signature files will fail dismally when it comes to combating new threats. Users still trust in their classic security solutions, in the erroneous belief that they are protected even though a new threat appears every five minutes.

The most advanced companies in anti-malware protection have developed solutions that are not based exclusively on signature files, but also on the analysis of system behavior to identify dangerous activity. This is a great step towards a higher level of security. But this is still not enough.

According to a study by Panda Software, 76% of the more than 100 companies analysed comprehensively (using a range of malware detection techniques) were infected by some kind of malware. Worse still, all of them had some kind of reliable malware protection system installed. Or at least that’s what their security managers thought.

The solution to this complex problem is not as intricate as you may think. If current solutions are not adequate, all we need are more advanced systems for detecting malicious code than those available at the moment.

An in-depth malware scan with the proper tools will reveal many unpleasant things. But just like cholesterol levels, it is better to find out while you are still alive.

Why don’t you try www.infectedornot.com?

Fernando de la Cuadra, International Technical Editor Panda Software