London, England, 7th August 2008 If ever there was a case for the industry to change its approach to malware infection detection, the warning from Adobe about fake Flash downloads is it, says security specialist Tier-3.

“Reports are coming in that Adobe is warning users to beware of fake update downloads for its popular Flash animation software,\" said Geoff Sweeney, Tier-3\'s chief technology officer.

\"These downloads are clearly being used as malware conduits, but all it takes is for one company staffer to be taken in by the forged email alerts and a company\'s security can be totally undone,\" he added. According to Sweeney, the fact that Adobe has been moved to issue an official warning about the problem indicates the scale of the problem, and, of course, its potential severity.

\"The issue the anti-virus and malware security industry faces with these types of downloads is that the hackers are using code obfuscation techniques to hide what the program code actually does,\" he said.

\"Coupled with shape-shifting technology that changes the pattern of the program each time it is downloaded, this makes it difficult - if not impossible - for regular IT security software to spot the code as it reaches the desktop PC,\" he added.

Against this backdrop, Sweeney says that the IT security software industry needs to move more quickly in response to new trends in malware infection behaviour by hackers.

\"The industry needs to stay one step ahead of the hackers in this regard and respond with new approaches when dealing with developing trends like this one,\" he said.

\"Behavioural analysis technology can spot any unusual activity triggered by an inappropriate download like this one and the code execution stopped within a few processor cycles. It can act as the security safety net that any modern firm now needs,\" he said.

For more on the Adobe Flash warning:

http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/2008/08/verifying_installers.html

For more on Tier-3:

http://www.tier-3.com

ENDS

ABOUT TIER-3

Tier-3, with headquarters in Sydney, is the inventor of Behavioural Anomaly Detection (BAD) technology which is the cornerstone of the HUNTSMAN Threat Management System. HUNTSMAN enables enterprises to scale security management while, at the same time, improving its effectiveness by offering for the first time, insight into enterprise ICT infrastructure and real-time risk-based threat management. Tier-3s significant customer base includes government, financial institutions, major corporations, and organisations in the critical infrastructure and intelligence areas around the world. www.tier-3.com