Desktop Search: A New Platform For Malware Scanning

Desktop search facilities will increase the capability of malicious code to search user systems for private data, or intercept the entry of data, which includes information like user names, passwords, and credit card numbers. Possible avenues of attack could include malicious indexer plug-ins that could extract information from, or even modify user documents, and malware that uses search events to trigger adware pop-ups or modify search results.

As a new age of operating systems dawns with the upcoming launch of Windows Vista, which will contain a built in desktop search facility, a whole host of malware variants could begin to emerge warn Andy Payne and Oliver Schmelzle from tech company Whole Security.

The pair suggested in their paper ‘Desktop Search: A New Platform For Malware Scanning?’ that although desktop search technology is a groundbreaking innovation, which they say will benefit end-users by making it easier to search for information stored on their PCs, platforms incorporating the facility could leave people open to attack.

Read Full Story @ PCPro by Kelly Ellis