At my startup RobotGenius, Inc., we've been building new technologies to fight malware, spyware and adware. Our "Spyberus" software installs at the driver layer between the Windows OS and the physical hard drive. It tracks all file modifications, and stores a history of all files on the system, allowing users to trace any infection back to its source (even to the web site or media it came from), and to reverse it with a few clicks.
We have an automated farm of PCs crawling the entire web, downloading, installing, and classifying all Windows executables based on their behavior. There are about a million executables on the internet, about .5% of which are malware. Soon we'll have data on every executable and a complete list of sites which distribute malware. You may see the data someday as security warnings in search results from your favorite search engine :-)
For now, you can enjoy the following movie, which shows a clusterbomb attack. The user downloads an innocuous seeming toolbar application, which initially only does a few nasty things, like modify the Windows hosts file, but after a pre-set delay starts jamming all sorts of downloaded malware code onto the machine. If Spyberus were not already installed on the machine, the user would probably have to wipe the hard drive completely and reinstall Windows. But as you can see, Spyberus allows for a quick and painless reversal of the infection.
Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will Favorite posts | Manifold podcast | Twitter: @hsu_steve
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(154)
-
▼
10
(11)
- Bricks and broadband
- It's crazy: there's no close second or third
- Does string theory predict an open universe?
- Proximity, ecosystems and Silicon Valley
- Income inequality by education
- Implied probabilities
- Malware clusterbomb movie
- The battle for brainpower
- All Things Considered
- Recommended reading from The Economist
- Greetings from Pasadena
-
▼
10
(11)

Labels
- physics (376)
- genetics (302)
- globalization (281)
- finance (268)
- brainpower (265)
- genomics (251)
- technology (237)
- american society (230)
- China (210)
- innovation (193)
- economics (183)
- ai (181)
- psychometrics (172)
- science (166)
- photos (162)
- psychology (158)
- machine learning (145)
- biology (142)
- travel (142)
- genetic engineering (129)
- universities (129)
- higher education (124)
- human capital (119)
- credit crisis (115)
- startups (113)
- iq (106)
- cognitive science (99)
- podcasts (98)
- autobiographical (88)
- political correctness (85)
- politics (85)
- careers (84)
- geopolitics (82)
- statistics (80)
- credit crunch (78)
- elitism (76)
- evolution (75)
- bounded rationality (74)
- quantum mechanics (74)
- gilded age (73)
- talks (72)
- income inequality (71)
- social science (71)
- genius (70)
- history of science (66)
- caltech (64)
- realpolitik (63)
- books (62)
- MSU (59)
- mma (57)
- sci fi (56)
- harvard (54)
- biotech (53)
- silicon valley (53)
- academia (51)
- mathematics (51)
- kids (50)
- education (49)
- bgi (48)
- history (48)
- intellectual history (48)
- cdo (45)
- derivatives (43)
- neuroscience (43)
- behavioral economics (41)
- jiujitsu (41)
- literature (40)
- physical training (39)
- video (38)
- computing (37)
- ufc (37)
- bjj (36)
- bubbles (36)
- film (36)
- mortgages (36)
- google (35)
- expert prediction (34)
- many worlds (34)
- affirmative action (33)
- hedge funds (33)
- economic history (32)
- nuclear weapons (31)
- race relations (31)
- security (31)
- black holes (30)
- quants (30)
- von Neumann (30)
- efficient markets (29)
- feynman (29)
- foo camp (29)
- movies (29)
- sports (29)
- music (28)
- singularity (26)
- entrepreneurs (25)
- housing (25)
- obama (25)
- subprime (25)
- berkeley (24)
- taiwan (24)
- conferences (23)
- epidemics (23)
- venture capital (23)
- athletics (22)
- meritocracy (22)
- quantum field theory (22)
- ultimate fighting (22)
- wall street (22)
- cds (20)
- internet (20)
- blogging (19)
- scifoo (19)
- gender (18)
- goldman sachs (18)
- new yorker (18)
- cryptography (17)
- dna (17)
- freeman dyson (17)
- smpy (17)
- treasury bailout (17)
- university of oregon (17)
- algorithms (16)
- japan (16)
- personality (16)
- privacy (16)
- autism (15)
- christmas (15)
- cosmology (15)
- happiness (15)
- height (15)
- oppenheimer (15)
- Fermi problems (14)
- fitness (14)
- les grandes ecoles (14)
- social networks (14)
- wwii (14)
- chess (13)
- government (13)
- hedonic treadmill (13)
- india (13)
- neanderthals (13)
- probability (13)
- russia (13)
- war (13)
- aspergers (12)
- blade runner (12)
- malcolm gladwell (12)
- net worth (12)
- nobel prize (12)
- nsa (12)
- philosophy of mind (12)
- research (12)
- entropy (11)
- geeks (11)
- harvard society of fellows (11)
- string theory (11)
- television (11)
- Einstein (10)
- Go (10)
- ability (10)
- art (10)
- climate change (10)
- cold war (10)
- football (10)
- italy (10)
- mutants (10)
- nerds (10)
- olympics (10)
- pseudoscience (10)
- complexity (9)
- crossfit (9)
- democracy (9)
- encryption (9)
- energy (9)
- eugene (9)
- flynn effect (9)
- france (9)
- james salter (9)
- pop culture (9)
- turing test (9)
- alan turing (8)
- alpha (8)
- data mining (8)
- dating (8)
- determinism (8)
- games (8)
- keynes (8)
- manhattan (8)
- pca (8)
- philip k. dick (8)
- qcd (8)
- quantum computers (8)
- real estate (8)
- robot genius (8)
- success (8)
- usain bolt (8)
- Iran (7)
- aig (7)
- ashkenazim (7)
- basketball (7)
- environmentalism (7)
- free will (7)
- fx (7)
- game theory (7)
- hugh everett (7)
- new york times (7)
- paris (7)
- patents (7)
- poker (7)
- simulation (7)
- tail risk (7)
- teaching (7)
- volatility (7)
- anthropic principle (6)
- bayes (6)
- class (6)
- drones (6)
- godel (6)
- intellectual property (6)
- markets (6)
- nassim taleb (6)
- noam chomsky (6)
- prostitution (6)
- rationality (6)
- academia sinica (5)
- bobby fischer (5)
- econtalk (5)
- fake alpha (5)
- global warming (5)
- information theory (5)
- iraq war (5)
- kasparov (5)
- luck (5)
- nonlinearity (5)
- perimeter institute (5)
- renaissance technologies (5)
- sad but true (5)
- software development (5)
- vietnam war (5)
- warren buffet (5)
- 100m (4)
- Poincare (4)
- bill gates (4)
- borges (4)
- cambridge uk (4)
- censorship (4)
- charles darwin (4)
- creativity (4)
- demographics (4)
- hormones (4)
- humor (4)
- inequality (4)
- judo (4)
- kerviel (4)
- microsoft (4)
- mixed martial arts (4)
- monsters (4)
- moore's law (4)
- solar energy (4)
- soros (4)
- trento (4)
- 200m (3)
- babies (3)
- brain drain (3)
- charlie munger (3)
- cheng ting hsu (3)
- chet baker (3)
- correlation (3)
- ecosystems (3)
- equity risk premium (3)
- facebook (3)
- fannie (3)
- feminism (3)
- fst (3)
- intellectual ventures (3)
- jim simons (3)
- language (3)
- lee kwan yew (3)
- lewontin fallacy (3)
- lhc (3)
- magic (3)
- michael lewis (3)
- nathan myhrvold (3)
- neal stephenson (3)
- olympiads (3)
- path integrals (3)
- risk preference (3)
- search (3)
- sec (3)
- sivs (3)
- society generale (3)
- supercomputers (3)
- systemic risk (3)
- thailand (3)
- alibaba (2)
- assortative mating (2)
- bear stearns (2)
- bruce springsteen (2)
- charles babbage (2)
- cloning (2)
- computers (2)
- david mamet (2)
- digital books (2)
- donald mackenzie (2)
- drugs (2)
- eliot spitzer (2)
- empire (2)
- exchange rates (2)
- frauds (2)
- freddie (2)
- gaussian copula (2)
- heinlein (2)
- industrial revolution (2)
- james watson (2)
- ltcm (2)
- mating (2)
- mba (2)
- mccain (2)
- mit (2)
- monkeys (2)
- national character (2)
- nicholas metropolis (2)
- no holds barred (2)
- offices (2)
- oligarchs (2)
- palin (2)
- population structure (2)
- prisoner's dilemma (2)
- skidelsky (2)
- socgen (2)
- sprints (2)
- twitter (2)
- ussr (2)
- variance (2)
- virtual reality (2)
- abx (1)
- anathem (1)
- andrew lo (1)
- antikythera mechanism (1)
- athens (1)
- atlas shrugged (1)
- ayn rand (1)
- bay area (1)
- beats (1)
- book search (1)
- bunnie huang (1)
- car dealers (1)
- carlos slim (1)
- catastrophe bonds (1)
- cdos (1)
- ces 2008 (1)
- chance (1)
- children (1)
- cochran-harpending (1)
- cpi (1)
- david x. li (1)
- dick cavett (1)
- dolomites (1)
- dune (1)
- eharmony (1)
- escorts (1)
- faces (1)
- fads (1)
- favorite posts (1)
- fiber optic cable (1)
- francis crick (1)
- gary brecher (1)
- gizmos (1)
- greece (1)
- greenspan (1)
- hypocrisy (1)
- igon value (1)
- iit (1)
- inflation (1)
- information asymmetry (1)
- iphone (1)
- jack kerouac (1)
- jaynes (1)
- jazz (1)
- jfk (1)
- john dolan (1)
- john kerry (1)
- john paulson (1)
- john searle (1)
- john tierney (1)
- jonathan littell (1)
- las vegas (1)
- lawyers (1)
- lehman auction (1)
- les bienveillantes (1)
- lowell wood (1)
- lse (1)
- machine (1)
- mcgeorge bundy (1)
- mexico (1)
- michael jackson (1)
- mickey rourke (1)
- migration (1)
- money:tech (1)
- myron scholes (1)
- netwon institute (1)
- networks (1)
- newton institute (1)
- nfl (1)
- oliver stone (1)
- phil gramm (1)
- philanthropy (1)
- philip greenspun (1)
- portfolio theory (1)
- power laws (1)
- pyschology (1)
- randomness (1)
- recession (1)
- sales (1)
- singapore (1)
- skype (1)
- standard deviation (1)
- star wars (1)
- starship troopers (1)
- students today (1)
- teleportation (1)
- tierney lab blog (1)
- tomonaga (1)
- tyler cowen (1)
- venice (1)
- violence (1)
- virtual meetings (1)
- war nerd (1)
- wealth effect (1)

4 comments:
The product looks very good!
I have a question, though: What's going to be the marketing plan?
I mean, I'd install it and probably so would most fellow computer-nerds. But, it seems that it is aimed to the users (eg my mom) who may actually click on the phishing links and such. Typically, it is difficult to get such users to install firefox, update windows or run spybot (still thinking of mom here), so why would it be any easier to get them to install spyberus. Maybe the hope is to get M$ to buy you guys out and build it into windows? ;-)
It may be that companies understand the value proposition better than most consumers, as they know how much time and money they have to spend cleaning infected machines. You are right that Spyberus would make a nice addition (as a feature) to existing security products :-)
It may be that companies understand the value proposition better than most consumers...
I assume you guys might get bought out by Micro$oft for a nice sum.
I think our data on which urls distribute malware is something users would like to see as part of their search results. I think it can be a competitive differentiator for Google/Yahoo/MSN/Ask...
Post a Comment