Antivirus software detects, blocks, and removes malicious code, helping reduce the risk of malware-driven data theft and system disruption.
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Antivirus software scans files and running processes to detect and remove malicious code such as viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware, and spyware. It uses signature databases, heuristic rules, and behavioral analysis to identify threats during real-time monitoring or scheduled scans. Regular updates to detection rules are necessary to recognize new malware variants and reduce false negatives.
While antivirus helps block many common malware infections on endpoints, it has limited effectiveness against advanced threats like fileless malware or attacks that evade signature detection. Security teams should combine antivirus with complementary tools such as endpoint detection and response (EDR) to improve visibility and threat hunting. Proper tuning is important to minimize false positives and performance impacts that can disrupt operations or obscure genuine alerts.
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GodDamn ransomware uses the signed PoisonX driver to disable security tools, marking a more advanced version of the Beast ransomware family. Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team found a new ransomware family called GodDamn that first appeared in the wild on May 21, 2026, and analyzed an attack that took place in early June. The group behind […]
Armored Likho APT uses AI-generated malware, phishing, and BusySnake Stealer to target governments and power grids in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Brazil. Kaspersky’s threat research team has documented a previously unknown APT group they’re calling Armored Likho, also tracked under the name Eagle Werewolf. The group runs two parallel tracks: financially motivated attacks against private individuals […]
CISA confirms BlueHammer (CVE-2026-33825) is now used in ransomware attacks to gain SYSTEM privileges through Microsoft Defender. BlueHammer, tracked as CVE-2026-33825, has moved from proof-of-concept noise to real ransomware attacks in the wild, the US CISA confirms. BlueHammer allows attackers to escalate privileges locally in Microsoft Defender. The vulnerability, along with two other zero-days dubbed […]
Microsoft confirmed the RoguePlanet Defender zero-day (CVE-2026-50656), a privilege escalation flaw, and is developing a security patch. Microsoft has acknowledged the RoguePlanet zero-day affecting Microsoft Defender, tracked as CVE-2026-50656 (CVSS score of 7.8). The vulnerability allows privilege escalation through the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine. The company stated it is aware of the issue and is […]
DragonForce hid for months by routing malware traffic through Microsoft Teams infrastructure, masking C2 activity and evading network detection. DragonForce ransomware operators hit a major U.S. services firm and stayed hidden for one to two months by routing their command-and-control traffic through Microsoft’s own Teams relay servers. Symantec’s threat hunters tracked the custom backdoor they […]
China-linked FishMonger used two SprySOCKS Windows variants that leveraged kernel drivers and the Print Spooler to target governments in four countries. ESET researchers have found two previously undocumented Windows versions of SprySOCKS, a backdoor that the security community had until now treated as Linux-only. Trend Micro first documented the Linux variant in September 2023 and […]
The researcher Chaotic Eclipse released a PoC for the RoguePlanet Microsoft Defender zero-day, which can grant SYSTEM privileges on fully patched Windows systems. Security researcher Chaotic Eclipse, also known as Nightmare-Eclipse, has published a new proof-of-concept exploit for a RoguePlanet Microsoft Defender zero-day. The flaw relies on a race condition that can provide attackers with […]
Attackers spent five months silently stealing emails from a stock exchange executive’s Outlook account in a suspected espionage operation. A threat actor quietly sat inside a senior executive’s Outlook account at a major global stock exchange for roughly 150 days, from October 2025 to March 2026. Broadcom’s Symantec and Carbon Black threat-hunting team investigated the […]