Malware Detection by Behavioural Approach and Protection by Access Control

As computers and networked systems have become an integral part of our daily lives, securing information from unauthorized access, misuse and modification has become very important. Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent and cause damage. The following factors call for an immediate attention to the problem of securing information systems from malware attacks

1. Malware industry has become more organized, resulting in a rapid increase in the amount and the type of malware.
2. There is a huge loss of revenue due to malware attacks.
3. Solutions currently provided by the commercial anti-virus/security products are easily defeated.
4. The time gap between a malware outbreak and the malware carrying out its intended damage is very small.

We have developed a new approach for detecting malware by their behavioural characteristics, and limiting the damage due to them by access control mechanisms. A brief overview of the results obtained will be presented in this talk.