Symantec Gets Patent On Anti Virus Technology

Symantec has announced that a key technology
in its Striker anti-virus engine has been granted patent rights by the US Patent and Trademark office.

The firm said that the next-generation technology enables the Striker
engine to detect complex polymorphic, or self-mutating, viruses much
more rapidly than traditional anti-virus engines.

As a result, the company claims that its Symantec AntiVirus Research
Center (SARC) can respond to these sophisticated new threats more
quickly than would otherwise be possible.

The IT security firm said that today's polymorphic viruses are very
difficult to detect using conventional anti-virus engines because
polymorphic viruses mutate themselves to conceal their identity, or
digital fingerprint.

Striker is the first package of its type to overcome this challenge
by creating a virtual computer, or sandbox, where polymorphic viruses
are tricked into exposing themselves and are then eliminated before
they can cause damage.

Cary Nachenberg, the firm's SARC chief researcher, said that as the
number of complex viruses steadily rises, so does the need for the
most sophisticated technologies to combat these insidious threats.

Symantec's Web site is at http://www.symantec.com.