Anti-Viruses Are Never Going to Die!

I was reading the press on the web when I stumbled upon an article on the future of anti-viruses and whether they do have a future or not. For a moment I asked myself the same question - do they have a future? Sure they do! As long as cyber-threats exist, so will AVs. It's just about evolution. And if you don't get it, let me put it in simpler terms - when aggressors were using swords, defenders came up with shields, when attacked with guns, some came up with bullet-proof vests, now even anti-rocket rockets exist. And it's the same thing with viruses - at the beginning they were harmless, so there was no need for too much protection. Then they became tougher and signature-based AVs came up. Then, viruses started changing their own code, so that's when anti-viruses became heuristic based, to detect behaviors and not signatures. Also, a few years ago, there weren't even a million viruses, now, they're millions, but also, there are a lot of AVs there and some are free, so that everyone can stay protected!

In any case, to me it's all about evolution - malware creators come up with something and then security software developers invent a program to counter it. Of course, I doubt that the good guys will have the upper hand, as they cannot predict what the bad guys will come up with, but with heuristics evolving more and more - who knows?

Some time ago, a non-tech-savvy person asked me why aren't all these viruses just exterminated. Well, even if they all were, new ones would pop up, as cyber-criminals can make a lot of money with malware. Viruses have become the tools of the trade for cyber-criminals everywhere. And as long as cyber-crime will exist, so will viruses, thus the need to be protected. Anti-viruses are nowhere near their end-of-life!