New protection system to anticipate PC invaders

— -- In a step that should help make the Internet safer for consumers, anti-virus giant Symantec on Wednesday will introduce a protection system designed to anticipate new malicious programs that try to sneak onto your computer.

For decades, anti-virus protection has worked by reacting to new malicious programs. Researchers scramble to identify bad code, then create and distribute filters for it. But cybercriminals have gotten so fast at evading the latest filters that protection often comes too late.

Symantec's new system, called Quorum, continuously predicts whether any new program that attempts to run on your PC is good or bad. It then takes steps to quarantine the bad code. "We're closing a major gap the bad guys have been using to deliver their malicious software," says Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of consumer products.

Symantec becomes the fourth major anti-virus firm — and the largest — to add predictive capabilities to traditional reactive anti-virus suites. Since February, McAfee, Panda Security and Trend Micro have introduced similar predictive technologies. "Reactive defenses just don't work anymore," says Steve Ragan, security editor at The Tech Herald. "Predictive systems will give an edge to the good guys."

Computer infections most often spread when a PC user clicks on a corrupted Web link that arrives in an e-mail or social-network message, or appears in search results for queries on Google, Bing and Yahoo Search. What's more, millions of legitimate Web pages — surreptitiously tainted by hackers — can also infect a PC during a page visit.

Cybercriminals use infected PCs to spread spam, steal data and hijack online banking accounts. Infections can change hourly, forcing anti-virus firms to create and deliver thousands of filters each day. "The amount of malicious software produced today has required all of us to change the approach we take in combating it," says Trend Micro senior manager Jon Clay. Trend began offering predictive protection to business customers in May. A consumer version is due next year.