Researchers are warning that much of the product line from security firm Symantec contains multiple vulnerabilities that expose millions of consumers, as well as small and large businesses, to self-replicating attacks that take complete control of their computers. Tavis Ormandy, a researcher with Google's Project Zero, has warned that the vulnerability is unusually easy to exploit, and allows the exploits to spread virtually from machine to machine over a targeted network.
Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst at NSFOCUS IB, a global network and application security provider, comments:
"In the current age of computer security, end-point protection is becoming nothing more than an arms race. Anti-virus and Anti-malware products are becoming less-and-less effective as hackers consistently create code that evades their protection capabilities. When you think of end-point protection, think of the game “Whack-a-Mole”. As soon as you whack one of them, another one pops right back up.
Although Anti-virus and Anti-malware products can be made to do a better job, it’s often at the cost of computer performance. People want better protection, but they do not want their computing devices to slow down because of it."