One year later: challenges for young anti-malware products today

Sorin Mustaca (Endpoint Cybersecurity)
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A year ago, at VB2019 we presented for the first time an overview of how the anti-malware world looks from the perspective of a young company trying to enter the market: how they try to build products, how they try to enter the market, how they try to convert users, and what challenges they face in these activities.

In this new paper we will present an overview of the situation for such a company after one year of experience. We will look at the situation from several angles:
  • that of the consulting company helping them to build the product and enter the market

  • that of working with certification companies regularly, checking the products for detection and performance

  • that of working with Microsoft to make the company compliant and keep them compliant

One year later, many still have a hard time understanding that the security market is no longer the Wild Wild West, but we also see that a lot of visible efforts are being made to improve. This means that compliance with 'clean software' regulations is becoming an issue. We will present some interesting statistics and compare data from the past with current data. The young companies still have a lot of challenges in understanding that implementing AV software is not the same as implementing any other type of software. Despite the fact that they still get flagged by the established products for various reasons, there are still more and more companies trying to enter the market.

A lot of people in the audience will ask themselves 'why would anyone want to enter the market, since the market is overcrowded, there are plenty of free products out there, and on Windows there is also Microsoft Defender?'. We will try to provide an answer to this question, but the answer is not what many think it is. Or, maybe it is ...
Sorin Mustaca
Endpoint Cybersecurity Sorin Mustaca, (ISC)2 CSSLP, CompTIA Security+ and Project+, has been working in the IT security industry since 2000. Until 2003 he worked at RAV Antivirus (acquired by Microsoft in 2003) and between 2003 and 2014 for Avira, where he was responsible for the well-known Avira AntiVir products used by over 100 million users worldwide. Since the end of 2014 he has run his own consulting company, Endpoint Cybersecurity GmbH, helping companies create better security products and improve their chances on the market.
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One year later: challenges for young anti-malware products today

Sorin Mustaca (Endpoint Cybersecurity)
A year ago, at VB2019 we presented for the first time an overview of how the anti-malware world looks from the perspective of a young company trying to enter the market: how they try to build products, how they try to enter the market, how they try to convert users, and what challenges they face in these activities.

In this new paper we will present an overview of the situation for such a company after one year of experience. We will look at the situation from several angles:
  • that of the consulting company helping them to build the product and enter the market

  • that of working with certification companies regularly, checking the products for detection and performance

  • that of working with Microsoft to make the company compliant and keep them compliant

One year later, many still have a hard time understanding that the security market is no longer the Wild Wild West, but we also see that a lot of visible efforts are being made to improve. This means that compliance with 'clean software' regulations is becoming an issue. We will present some interesting statistics and compare data from the past with current data. The young companies still have a lot of challenges in understanding that implementing AV software is not the same as implementing any other type of software. Despite the fact that they still get flagged by the established products for various reasons, there are still more and more companies trying to enter the market.

A lot of people in the audience will ask themselves 'why would anyone want to enter the market, since the market is overcrowded, there are plenty of free products out there, and on Windows there is also Microsoft Defender?'. We will try to provide an answer to this question, but the answer is not what many think it is. Or, maybe it is ...
Sorin Mustaca
Endpoint Cybersecurity Sorin Mustaca, (ISC)2 CSSLP, CompTIA Security+ and Project+, has been working in the IT security industry since 2000. Until 2003 he worked at RAV Antivirus (acquired by Microsoft in 2003) and between 2003 and 2014 for Avira, where he was responsible for the well-known Avira AntiVir products used by over 100 million users worldwide. Since the end of 2014 he has run his own consulting company, Endpoint Cybersecurity GmbH, helping companies create better security products and improve their chances on the market.