Anti Malware Lab

The Problem

Over 2.5 lakh new malware infect 1.5 million user systems every year.

Malicious software, commonly known as malware, is designed to harm or exploit any programmable device, service, or network. The sort of helpful information that can be compromised with such attacks has no end.

• Compromising personal data of users for identity theft
• Financial data theft of users by accessing the payment details on a user system
• Multiple computer control hacking, to launch denial-of-service attacks against other networks
• Mine bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies by infecting user systems

The Solution

The VPT’s Anti-malware Lab focuses on real-time monitoring and identifying malicious software for Windows & Mac Operating Systems. Our team of security researchers, malware hunters, data analysts, and software engineers are working to provide a dynamic response to famous, new, and unknown threats affecting Windows and MAC systems.

We conduct security research, analyze malware and potentially unwanted apps, and collaborate with product developers to significantly enrich Windows & Mac protection.

The Method

Malware comes in different forms — the package, disk image, application bundle, binary file, or script file — can all vary. The malicious actions of threats are diverse as well. Malware can manifest in anything from showing an ad (adware) to using your Mac CPU to mine bitcoins (сryptojackers) or locking your sensitive data files (ransomware).

Our work starts with analyzing data samples from different sources to uncover the malware among them. We combine automated and manual analysis. Our automation tools generate other markers to help us with the basic triaging of samples. We then put the sample in a controlled environment and observed its activity. Based on the automated analysis results, we research whether this sample complies with our criteria for malicious programs. If the answer is positive, we determine its type and create signatures for the anti-malware engine.

The Use

Once our research geeks have identified malware, we share the corresponding signatures and data about specific malware techniques and tactics with the development teams. The developers use these details to improve the software, helping to clean infected Windows or Macs operating systems and protect them from further infections.