Symantec has been granted a new patent for antivirus technology by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The company says it was granted US patent number 6 971 019 for histogram-based malicious code detection technology that accelerates the detection of complex threats and security risks, including viruses, worms, Trojan horses, blended threats, spyware and adware.
Histogram-based malicious code detection is a fundamental antivirus technology employed throughout Symantec's portfolio of antivirus solutions at the desktop, server and gateway, to protect consumers and enterprises, the company adds.
Carey Nachenberg, Symantec fellow and chief architect with Symantec Research Labs, developed and patented the technology. This marks the 17th patent awarded to Nachenberg in the field of information security since 1997.
"Histogram-based malicious code detection is one of the most effective and efficient ways of solving the problem of complex threat detection," says Nachenberg.
"Without this technology, it would be extremely difficult to identify such threats without also significantly impacting performance."
Patrick Evans, regional director of Symantec Africa adds: "With this patent, Symantec continues to set the standard in the information security space for innovating new technology that is fundamental for protecting individuals and businesses alike from today's cyber threats."
Malicious code typically has one or more behaviours or instructions that identify it as a specific strain of threat, he says, adding that histogram-based malicious code detection technology uses a prioritised count of various behaviours and instructions to identify code moving across a system or a network. This allows it to determine quickly whether a threat is present or not.
Symantec owns more than 200 patents in a variety of areas, including antivirus, intrusion detection/prevention, firewall, security and software management, storage and imaging, software distribution, compression/encryption, anti-spam, anti-spyware, and virtual private network security.
Share
