Cisco’s mid-year security report has me wondering whether over-the-counter and free Computer security programs have seen their day.   I have been questioning how effective these low level products can be as cybercrime has escalated at such a rapid rate over the last few years.

Cybercrime is always evolving making one move after another to stay ahead the Computer Protection we put on our computers.  Every day you can find articles and blogs covering new problems hackers create to either cause harm, gain personal information or  steal money from unsuspecting victims.  

Cybercrime takes another giant step

If you were paying attention you could see it coming.  If fact, you knew it was only a matter of time until it happened.  What am I talking about?  Cybercriminals are beginning to network and work together closer than ever before.  They are treating their trade just like corporations around the world do. 

Their next giant step in making your computer protection ineffective comes in two parts

An Article in Network World, “Latest Malware Trick:  Outsourcing Quality Assurance”, states the problem we face today clearly.  The first big step is a part of a wider trend of malware purveyors who use established business practices to expand their illegal enterprises.  Cybercriminals create working relationships between themselves to develop a partner ecosystem, a term Cisco uses to describe its collaboration with other vendors. 

Cisco uses the Conficker and the creators of the Waledac malware partnership as an example.  The creators of the Waledac malware enlisted the Conficker botnet as a tool to spread their malware for them.  Cisco reports this marked the first time, that we know of, that Conficker, one of the largest bonets in the world, was hired out.

But wait, there’s more

Cisco points out that what makes this more troubling is that cybercriminals are moving on to a new bag tricks that should scare the heck out of all of us.  The next big step, malware distributors are now using quality assurance program services to make sure their malware is effective.  Cisco sites virtest.com as an example.  For a fee, the site tests malware or malicious files against the latest versions of 26 virus-scanning software products to determine whether the anti-virus software can detect the malware. 

The NetworkWorld article goes on to say that running the malware through this screening results in malware that is 10 to 20 times more effective than it would be otherwise.  And, one more thing, actually frees up the cybercriminals so they can work on other products rather than test how detectable their current exploits are on their own. 

How can the over-the-counter and free-ware protection keep up?

Honestly, when I first read this article I was shocked!  So, now there’s professional quality assurance cybercrime businesses working with other cybercriminals to make sure malware does what it is supposed to do and will guarantee its success.  Do you see the potential harm from all of this?

Individuals who are using over-the-counter and free-ware that is tested by these cybercriminals are much more vulnerable than ever before.  I could be wrong, but I honestly don’t think these products have the ability to stay ahead of the bad guys any more. 

Could over-the-counter and free-ware Protection be rendered helpless and ineffective from these quality assurance programs?  I believe it is going to take professional grade software with a hueristic solution to have a chance of beating these bad guys at their game. 

What if your computer is compromised?  What do you do then? 

I don’t know of one over-the-counter computer protection product that gets your computer back to running like new at no additional charge once it has been compromised.  So, it’s buyer beware when buying these over-the-counter and free-ware computer protection products.  It could cost you a lot of headaches based on this new information.