Intel hardware-based anti-virus feature

An interesting comment originates from Intel CTO Justin Rattner who claims that a new hardware-based security technology under development by Intel researchers will stop zero-day attacks in their tracks. Rattner said the technology will be ready to be released later this year, it will not be signature-based but other than that he didn't share a lot of information about this new security technology.

The technology won't be signature-based, like so much security is today. Signature-based malware detection is based on searching for known patterns within malicious code. The problem, though, is that zero-day, or brand-new, malware attacks are often successful because they have no known signatures to guard against.

Intel is working around this problem by not depending on signatures. And the technology will be hardware based, though it's still unclear if it will have a software component. "Right now, anti-malware depends on signatures, so if you haven't seen the attack before, it goes right past you unnoticed," said Rattner, who called the technology "radically different".

"We've found a new approach that stops the most virulent attacks. It will stop zero-day scenarios. Even if we've never seen it, we can stop it dead in its tracks," he said.