Breaking news

We’ve gotten some questions here today about public reports claiming there’s a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7.  This is an issue that we have under investigation and so we have some technical information we can share about the issue.

These reports are technically inaccurate: the issue concerned in these reports is not in Internet Explorer 7 (or any other version) at all. Rather, it is in a different Windows component, specifically a component in Outlook Express. While these reports use Internet Explorer as a vector the vulnerability itself is in Outlook Express.

ErrorSafe Object Recognized!
    Type               : Regkey
    Data               :
    TAC Rating         : 10
    Category           : Misc
    Comment            :
    Rootkey            : HKEY_USERS
    Object             : [user]\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\ext\stats\{6bf52a52-394a-11d3-b153-00c04f79faa6}

All the events of the third quarter of 2006 lead me to conclude that both the Internet and the field of information security are on the verge of something totally new. I would say that the second stage of both virus and antivirus evolution is now complete.

The first stage was during the 1990s, which simple signature detection was enough to combat simple viruses. At this stage, malicious code was not highly technical and did not use complex infection methods.

The start of the new millennium brought email and network worms to the fore. These malicious programs exploited vulnerabilities and the human factor in order to spread. The ability of worms to infect a large number of machines in a short space of time led to the rise of cyber criminality, and technologies used by viruses became more complex, as did the range of malicious programs. Spam, phishing, mobile malware, vulnerabilities in browsers and networking equipment, and blended threats, which spread not only via email, but also via the Internet and instant messaging clients all played their roles. Reaction time became critical, with antivirus companies starting to used code emulation, Anti-Rootkit technologies, and techniques to protect users' confidential data.