McAfee Defenders Blog: Reality Check for your Defenses


Welcome to reality


Ever since I started working in IT Security more than 10 years ago, I wondered, what helps defend against malware the best?


This simple question does not stand on its own, as there are several follow-up questions to that:


  • How is malware defined? Are we focusing solely on Viruses and Trojans, or do we also include Adware and others?

  • What malware types are currently spread across the globe? What died of old age and what is brand new?

  • How does malware operate? Is file-less malware a short-lived trend or is it here to stay?

  • What needs to be done to adequately defend against malware? What capabilities are needed?

  • What defenses are already in place? Are they configured correctly?

  • This blog will guide you through my research and thought process around these questions and how you can enable yourself to answer these for your own organization!


    A quick glance into the past


    As mentioned above, the central question “what helps best?” has followed me throughout the years, but my methods to be able to answer this question have evolved. The first interaction I had with IT Security was more than 10 years ago, where I had to manually deploy new Anti-Virus software from a USB-key to around 100 devices. The settings were configured by a colleague in our IT-Team, and my job was to help remove infections when they came up, usually by going through the various folders or registry keys and cleaning up the remains. The most common malware was Adware, and the good-ol obnoxious hotbars which were added to the browser. I remember one colleague calling into IT saying “my internet has become so small, I can barely even r ..

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