Rootkit Evolution

Over the last few years HBGary has researched significant advancements in rootkit technology. We are pushing the envelope of what’s possible in the windows kernel. I’m glad to say that we haven’t seen anything in the wild that is remotely close to what we have developed in our labs. So, we are still ahead of the threat. This keeps our Digital DNA ‘frosty’ so-to-speak, but probably further ahead of the threat curve than it needs to be. That’s not a bad thing for people protecting against APT – we want to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. For those who have followed my work in rootkits over the years you probably noticed I stopped releasing public material on the subject years ago. This is because I didn't want to educate the bad guys on how to develop this stuff. But, that doesn’t mean the research has stopped – just that some things should only be briefed behind closed doors.