From AntiVirus to AntiMalware Software and Beyond: Another Approach to the Protection of Customers from Dysfunctional System Behaviour
Klaus Brunnstein · 1999
As users tend to rely on systems of growing complexity without themselves being able to understand or control behaviour, threats contained in software must be well understood. The paper deals with different aspects of malicious software (malware), both self-replicating (aka viruses and worms) and pure payloads (aka Trojan Horses) which are understood as additional though unwished and unspecified features of systems of programs; such system or software features are regarded as dysfunctional. As traditional definitions somewhat lack consistency which is prerequisite to describing complex dysfunctionalties, and as they are partially self-contradicting and incomplete concerning recent threats, a definition is developed which distinguishes normal dysfunctionalties (produced through weaknesses of contemporary Software Engineering) from intentionally malevolent ones. Complex real threats may be built from two atomic types, namely self-replicating and Trojanic elements, each of which may act under some trigger condition. Based on experiences collected from tests, AntiMalware methods need further developments, both concerning classification of newly experienced threats and concerning online detection in user systems.