Critical Control 12: Malware Defenses

To start the discussion of this control we need a definition: malware is software specifically designed to exploit a system.  Malware is not a bug or weak code that has led to a vulnerability, its sole purpose is to attack and take advantage of systems and other software.
Protection methods have been designed from anti-malware scanners to anti-malware appliances to allow us to reduce or eliminate compromises from malware.  Malware comes in many forms such as viruses, root kits, Trojan horses, and spyware.  Therefore, the protection methods we put in place may be in the form of stacked or layered defenses.
Our users have been and will always be our weakest link.  Malware thrives on the ability to take advantage of our users.  Getting users to utilize the Internet to communicate and purchase items has offered our exploitation adversaries opportunities to excel.  Dispersal of attacks is amplified through successful use of unwitting and unknowing users.  Individuals rely on e-mail more and more everyday.  This daily function has presented itself as just another avenue for attackers to take advantage of and even to use the users against themselves.  Through social engineering, attackers contact a user and try to get users to either download and run attachments to the e-mail onto their systems, or follow links embedded within the e-mail and attach to rogue sites, which may execute malicious (continue reading...)