Security researchers are keeping a wary eye on malicious
programs circulating on the Internet designed to carry out
invasive tasks in a computer 's random access memory, then
disappear without a trace. "We are seeing very sophisticated
code that resides in the RAM of a computer that traditional
(defensive) software has no chance of detecting," says Bob
Gourley, chief tech officer of tech consultancy CTOvision.com.
In the past year, 10% of malicious code isolated by security
firm Triumfant operated exclusively in RAM. That's worrisome, as
the current approach to defending networks is built around
detecting and disabling malicious programs after a hacker embeds
them on the hard drives. Triumfant CEO John Prisco refers to
RAM-based attacks as "advanced volatile threats." Such attacks
require high expertise to pull off, and so far have been
comparatively rare. But they could get more usage by elite
hacking groups as organizations get better at defending
traditional attacks, security researchers say. "What we're s