The Norton Power Eraser recovery tool is driven by a new security engine called Symantec Maximum Repair (SMR). With the existence of the newest and toughest threats in digital devices, SMR has combined hard-hitting heuristics and advance removal abilities.
So why is there a need to develop the new engine? For the past few years, as new technological advances were discovered, the threat landscape has also radically changed. Thus, new approaches for protection should be taken in.
The new trends which bring malicious threats include:
A new micro distribution model for malicious threat:
Recently, hackers have tried this model to distribute millions of variants to a number of victims. These variants were generated in huge volume wherein pre-existing threats were packed and encrypted in packer kits and custom encryptors. This happens everytime a user downloads a file on the internet. In fact, Symantec has identified 240 million of these varieties which is now slowly being exterminated bringing about 200 actual threats.
Advanced Rootkits:
The use of advance rootkit techniques has also been evident. Hackers have been willing to push development of the said technique and its deployment despite its difficult boundaries. The evolution and spread of Backdoor Tidsert and w32 Stuxnet are just few of these rootkits.
Fake Antivirus.
Increase of Fake Antivirus scams also propagated. Installing fake AVs on users’ machine has become a profit-gaining business. Unfortunately, hackers have been able to utilize every tool to avoid being identified. Distributors were able to make $130 per day. And worse, the fake AV is multi-layered with difficulty to remove.
This is how SMR was designed. To meet the ever-changing challenge of threat space, Norton has to keep abreast with all those and include key design elements for the eraser tool such as:
- An easy updateable engine
- Ability to target infections in its entirety
- Aggressive detection techniques.
With all these, Norton assures that all malicious threats given by FAKE AVs or hacker’s techniques, the Norton Power Eraser can turn them off in a shot.