2011 Predictions

My prediction for 2011...

A Wilders member known for his overzealous love for and defense of all things Symantec will finally have a series of terrible experiences with the software giant's tech support, wherein his pleas for assistance are either repeatedly ignored, completely misunderstood, or he is advised to uninstall/reinstall his programs regardless of what the trouble is. This member will swear off all Symantec products for the rest of his natural born days, and issue sweeping apologies to all of the folks whom he has dubbed bashers and nay-sayers.

 

Nope.
I'm predicting that W-8 development is actually considerably farther along than is generally acknowledged and that it will be released to manufacturer by November, 2011.
A big surprise to almost everyone, but Microsoft wants the accelerated revenue flow from release at the beginning of the holiday season, something they missed with Vista.

I like going out on a limb (sometimes).

 

I can't understand why most people (at Wilders) are considering AVs the defense layer most representative of their security. AVs are useful but certainly not essential. If Norton detects a bit more than Avira or vice-versa, there are still at any given time hundreds (if not thousands) of unknown malware that could escape detection were it not for the real security afforded by sandboxing, virtualization, and imaging software.

Rather than predicting anything I wish new ideas were developed in the field of virtualization and backup software.

 

Probably because it is still an important layer.
Imaging can fail because you only restore your system, it fails again certain attack such as data theft etc.
Sandbox DOES affects performance and i'm pretty sure everyone likes blazing fast response from the software/pc.
Virtualization is another story, it's effective but it takes a A LOT OF resources usually. (VMWare, VBOX etc.) Although there are alternatives of virtualization such as returnil, rollbackrx, CTM it still fails against data theft and other things etc.

IMO (In my opinion) signature based detections are still a fundamental part of the equation because it still prevents most infections even if 0 days are not blocked.

IMO every layer is important

 

In my case, I prefer AV On Access scanning for Realtime malware protection.
Automatic protection saves me a long time, you imagine scanning +734.000 files (in my PC) in a sandbox!

 

Knowledge is the key. Most of the users are downloading and running every file that they get and cant answer HIPS alert or if they download cracks they will turn off the antivirus because they think its a false alert. We need to educate the averge users, then almost every antivirus is good for them.

 

Safe-Admin will be released by Sully in 2011

 

Webroot Spysweeper will once agan become the cats meow with the inclusion of Prevx within what will be a Premium Suite.

 

Pedersen wasn't talking about the current product line; he was thinking about the internal affairs at Symantec, probably with support issues in mind.

 

Please, do not be too harsh on me... I believe I still got some alcohol level in my blood.

This is how I see it: New year arrive. It still amazes me some people still have as a layer to fight malware/that will fight malware imaging backups.

Don't get me wrong, I believe and I'm 100% in favor of imaging backups: To safeguard your data against corruption, loss. As the word "backup" says: it's backing you up, by safeguarding your data. Just make sure you safeguard your important stuff in more than on media type.

Fight malware with such? NO... Big NO. How can you tell that you even have one single image backup clean? "Oh... I perform on-demand scans... If it says it's clean, I'll save it to have a new backup." (I see similar stuff to this. Doesn't make me feel any more confident about it than I already am.) Sorry, I can't make/couldn't make such claims, which is why I don't use imaging backups as a way to fight malware. A total waste of time, IMHO.

What you truly need is prevention. People still talk of antiviruses as if they were the same technology that emerged in the past. Maybe some of them still are; but, then again, they're not part of the major players that have always been around, are they? No, these have evolved. They have added new layers of protection.

Then, there's stuff like: Harden your Operating System and web browser! If the main infections entrance is set to reduce infection vectors, then you are preventing infections.

This leaves what? E-mail client programs? If you do not wish to make it as tighten as the web browser, run it in an isolated environment; no need for virtual machines, heck - Sandboxie is a great example of what can be used. You don't feel you got the same speed opening it? OK. Just sandbox media players, pdf readers. I'd say most people would be receiving files in any of these formats (pdfs or media files).

I believe quite a few prevention means exist, that could even help the less knowledgeable person. Obviously, this person would need to known someone more knowledgeable than him/she. But, hey that's how things are, right?

You've got DNS services like ClearCloud, Norton, OpenDNS, DynDNS, etc. Any of these services would be/is a useful resource for people like I got in the family, which is why I've switched their ISP DNS to one of these. No noticeable difference in the speed, plus additional security.

Working with reduced session rights adds one more layer. Sure, malware will evolve to work with reduced rights as more users start working this way. But, the damage won't be global.
This means what? Make use of different accounts for different tasks; specially a different account for general web browsing; e-mail; home banking/other confidential matters.

Kees1958 mentioned the SAFE-Admin project. This will bring an easier and faster way of deploying certain O.S and other applications hardening. This will create a tremendous shield in terms of security. Is it the perfect solution? No, it isn't. But, it sure will create well... a damn security shield making use of what the operating system has to offer to us. (I can't find better words to explain ) Sadly, Windows XP users won't benefit from such features the same way Vista/7 users will.
This means what? Find other containment solutions.

Just protect the vectors that are likely to be exploited to infected your and your relatives system(s). The rest: imaging backup to prevent data loss. That's it.

** For those wanting an extra assurance for those less careful relatives, install an antivirus with web and e-mail scanning features.

 

I guess it will be 2012 - still no beta available

 

I predict that this time next year members will still be making silly predictions!

 

+1.
Sanboxing/Virtualization and Instant System Recovery.

 

lol , i dont believe some employee of xxx company is saying bad about norton where its best and winning best awards not only from reputed mag but also trusted av-c, av-test and so many

my prediction :
Norton is sure to win best Av with tiugh competition from F-Secure
Hitman gro will become more popular

comeback from eset
Hopefully kaspersky becomes light on next versions

 

For the antivirus market.

Best products in general: ESET 5 (for business and more advanced users), F-Secure 2012 (for novice users and families).

Disappointment of the year: Kaspersky 2012, will continue heading the bloatware direction.
Surprise of the year: McAfee 2012, will become one of the top performing products again.

The fight of the free antiviruses will be more interesting than ever.
avast! 6 is around the corner, which promises great improvements.
AVG will further improve their performance and behavior blocker.
Panda Cloud will fix it's bugs and performance issues.
Avira will be further improved and refined.
Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 won't live up it's expectations, but it will still be a good product.

We will finally all realise all the reviews and testing are pure ******** and just focus on our personal experiences. This means we will see it doesn't matter how much of the malware a product finds, and won't nag about zero-day malware. But that it protects you against infections which matters (like 10% of the total malware). This also means that the all the overcomplicated setups will be gone. People start using nice setups: Windows 7 built-in features and a good antivirus, and that's it.

 

+1

 

Predictions:

Market gains- cloud storage, mobile phone security

Market changes- several smaller scale security companies continue to be taken over by larger corporations; freeware programs grow in number as an avenue to paid products and/or to keep up with new malware signatures (McAfee, Trend Micro, Kaspersky begin to offer free/ limited version av).


New Malware- Android phones, x64 systems see more malware attacks; Rogue Malware starts taking the form of system utilities such as defraggers, system cleaners, etc and RansomWare becomes the new Super Rogue. Repositories for clean Windows programs develops a market niche.

That's my predictions.

 

Sorry I should explain. I have some insight knowledge cause of my position and the internal communication and developing is not running well at all. I wont explain in any details but if the current internal problems in symantec continues I wont expect Symantec to keep the lead places who aren't paid or sponsored by symantec itself.

 

last year i made some predictions which didnt work

SO THIS YEAR..
---------------------------
--------Nothing-------
------------ -----------
--------------------------

 

I expect ESET and Avira to develop their Cloud services further. And so do Avast!

I also think that Prevx 4.0 will be a great release, and hopefully a success!

Elsewhere, I think we will see more Cloud based Protection services over all.

 

Norton will introduce Sonar4, Avira will add signatures, introduction Cloud and improvement of AviraProactiv more quickly.

Immunet will broaden users one's base very much, several engines will add.

My expectations on 2011 the year. The best antivirus On- demand:

Immunet Protect Plus (False Positive will be a bit surely).
Avira
Panda

Kaspersky will introduce several novelties, but this still will not be TOP3 in scanning On- demand.
Prevx in version 4 should e.g. concentrate the Poland on the protection of the different languages of keyboards.

 

I think Avira already got Signatures as their main protection.

 

Avira 10 already has a cloud service

 

I think this is the year that Ilya will figure out how to offer equal protection from Defensewall on a 64-bit system that it offers on a 32-bit system.

 

The experts have spoken ! I am a novice so my predictions are going to be purely from the gut (and no doubt will have a low probability of happening!!!)
- cloud based AVs will become the norm, not the exception
- cloud based computing for online shopping and online banking will be introduced by corporations across the board
- all browsers will be sandboxed by the vendors
- third party cookie shutdown capability on all browsers will be offered
- north america (US and Canada) will be forced by legislation to upgrade broadband infrastructure to support marketing claims, re: HSPA. That is, if a 100MB is the max., then at 50MB has to be delivered in peek. None of this throttling back to EDGE speeds on hispeed internet connections during peek.
- all ISP data plan contracts will be eliminated. ISPs without DPs will gain market share.
- Apple's proprietary stance will be exposed and opposed ('cos it is evil!)
- Linux will see a huge increase in marketshare