Abstract

Members of AVIEN (the Anti-Virus Information Exchange Network) have been setting agendas in malware management for several years: they led the way on generic filtering at the gateway, and in the sharing of information about new threats at a speed that even anti-virus companies were hard-pressed to match. AVIEN members represent the best-protected large organizations in the world, and millions of users. When they talk, security vendors listen: so should you.
AVIEN’s sister organization AVIEWS is an invaluable meeting ground between the security vendors and researchers who know most about malicious code and anti-malware technology, and the top security administrators of AVIEN who use those technologies in real life. This new book uniquely combines the knowledge of these two groups of experts. Anyone who is responsible for the security of business information systems should be aware of this major addition to security literature.
* “Customer Power” takes up the theme of the sometimes stormy relationship between the antivirus industry and its customers, and tries to dispel some common myths. It then considers the roles of the independent researcher, the vendor-employed specialist, and the corporate security specialist.
* “Stalkers on Your Desktop” considers the thorny issue of malware nomenclature and then takes a brief historical look at how we got here, before expanding on some of the malware-related problems we face today.
* “A Tangled Web” discusses threats and countermeasures in the context of the World Wide Web.
* “Big Bad Bots” tackles bots and botnets, arguably Public Cyber-Enemy Number One.
* “Crème de la CyberCrime” takes readers into the underworld of old-school virus writing, criminal business models, and predicting future malware hotspots.
* “Defense in Depth” takes a broad look at DiD in the enterprise, and looks at some specific tools and technologies.
* “Perilous Outsorcery” offers sound advice on how to avoid the perils and pitfalls of outsourcing, incorporating a few horrible examples of how not to do it.
* “Education in Education” offers some insights into user education from an educationalist’s perspective, and looks at various aspects of security in schools and other educational establishments.
* “DIY Malware Analysis” is a hands-on, hands-dirty approach to security management, considering malware analysis and forensics techniques and tools.
* “Antivirus Evaluation & Testing” continues the D-I-Y theme, discussing at length some of the thorny issues around the evaluation and testing of antimalware software.
* “AVIEN & AVIEWS: the Future” looks at future developments in AVIEN and AVIEWS.
* Unique, knowledgeable, unbiased and hype-free commentary.
* Written by members of the anti-malware community; most malware books are written by outsiders.
* Combines the expertise of truly knowledgeable systems administrators and managers, with that of the researchers who are most experienced in the analysis of malicious code, and the development and maintenance of defensive programs.