Free protection from browser attacks
Posted on | December 17, 2008 | add a comment
F-Secure is offering its Exploit Shield tool for free to help you defend yourself against the type of the browser attacks that compelled Microsoft to issue an emergency security patch today. F-Secure’s Chief Security Adviser Patrik Runald says Exploit Shield provides ‘zero-day’ protection against browser attacks for which no patches yet exist.
Here’s the high-level description from Runald: “The most common way to get infected today is through what are called drive-by downloads where your PC gets infected when you visit a website. Vulnerabilities and exploits are used to make this happen. Previously, the way to protect against this has been either by waiting for patches from the developer, or by using anti-virus technology to try to detect when the exploit attempt happens. However, by modifying the exploit code, the bad guys can circumvent this protection layer, which means the antivirus product will require a new update. That’s why we developed ExploitShield.”
For a more detailed explanation, and to download a copy, check out this entry in F-Secure’s blog.
-Byron Acohido