Antivirus Protections Now Used by Virus Creators

In case you have never used an online antivirus technology that scans your file with several applications at the same time, you should really try it. Instead of scanning a single file with the downloadable solution installed on your computer, you can easily check it with up to 32 security products through a simple online interface. Many of you have already heard of VirusTotal or Jotti, two web-based services supposed to check your file with multiple programs. But, according to Aleks of Kaspersky's VirusList.com, this kind of service also has a dark side and can easily turn into our worst enemies in a matter of seconds.

"They quickly caught on to the fact that services like the ones mentioned above could be used to test how well their creations can evade popular antivirus solutions. If a new Trojan or worm can be detected by an antivirus, the author will deliberately modify it until it isn't detected any more. The result? The heuristics used in the vast majority of antivirus products are helpless when confronted by such carefully prepared malicious programs", he wrote.

And this thing is obvious. If you want to design an application compatible with all Windows versions, you test it on all flavors of the operating system. If you want to build an undetectable virus, you check it with most antiviruses available on the market. Simple as that!

What's interesting is that most services similar to VirusTotal can send the infected files to antivirus companies, in order to help them fight against last-minute infections. However, most of them have options that enable the consumers to block the distribution of the file although "there's a rumour in virus writing circles that all files are sent to virus labs, regardless of whether or not the option is enabled", as the blog post reads.

Now that we know that such antivirus technologies can be easily used by virus writers to build their malicious files, let me tell one thing: this is not the worst thing you can get. It appears that there are services that are exclusively addressed to virus creators and charge them for scanning files with multiple security technologies.

"Cyber criminals are now offering a solution for the tin-foil hat brigade - similar services designed expressly for virus writers. You have to pay to use the service, but there's a guarantee that no file will be sent to an antivirus company", Aleks of Viruslist.com added.