Malware Has an Escape From Existing Antivirus Protection: Your Antivirus May Fail to Detect Malware

Malicious software, better known as Malware, is a kind of harmful software intended to break into a computer and access it without the user's consent. A malware could be anything from Trojan horses, viruses, crimeware, rootkits, to adware etc. A recent study, carried out by EUROSTAT (European Union's Statistics Agency), reveals that around 1/3rd of the internet users in the European Union (EU) faced computer security threats despite having an antivirus protection on during the year 2010. The study states that around 84% of the users had IT-based security software protection including anti-spam, antivirus, and firewall etc. Here is the list of the countries that had most virus-infected users including Bulgaria (58%), Malta (50%), Slovakia (47%), Hungary (46%), Italy (45%), Germany (22%), Finland (20%), Ireland (15%), and Austria (14%)

Similar to EUROSTAT, PandaLabs also released its study lately mentioning about the somewhat similar data facts. According to its study, around 50% of the PCs across the world caught different virus infections during January. Trojan horses remained the most malicious software allowing hackers/attackers to access the users' personal and financial information. With a share of 59%, Trojan horses topped the list of most malicious software with next in line common viruses (12%) and worms (9%). In the category of most common malware threats, generic Trojans topped the list with next in line downloaders, exploits, and adware. Lineage, a type of old Trojan, also remained one of the common malware that continuously proliferates and infects computers.

So, having an antivirus in your computer does not mean that it can be saved from all malware programs. However, it entirely does not mean that your antivirus security is not effective. Your antivirus needs to updated every day and every time with latest anti-Trojan or anti-malware definitions in order to protect your computer system from malicious software and keep attackers away. Further, you should be careful while opening or downloading any email/attachments or randomly clicking on any advertisement/link etc. that could potentially be a malware or virus.