ABSTRACT

ANTI-MALWARE RESEARCH

Malicious Software (malware) has always been a vehicle of choice for cybercriminals and cyberterrorists to deliver their attacks. What was once started as an activity for fun has now consolidated into a well-established business model mostly driven by profit and political motifs. Malware is nowadays responsible for most of the malicious activities on the Internet (e.g., sensitive and financial information theft, DDoS, spam, click fraud), playing a fundamental role in more complex attacks. Despite the non-negligible research effort invested by the academic and industry community, statistics and trends provide a clear evidence that malicious software still represents one of the most pressing Internet threats undermining the security, privacy and safety of Internet users - an increasingly worrying concern that nowadays is not only confined to traditional computing devices, but that also spreads to mobile, critical infrastructure and Internet of Things at a very fast pace. Dealing with malware will be the challenge for the next decade.