Future Threats

Abstract

'Aren't you just giving the virus writers ideas?' Research into future security threats is not always taken kindly by all members of the anti-virus community. Understanding the bounds of security research is important, however, with the increasing emphasis on proactive rather than reactive defences. We begin to examine how far ecurity research can go in terms of looking at future threats, particularly the publication of future threats. Our analysis addresses cultural, ethical and legal issues. We hope to provoke a meaningful discussion on future threat research within the anti-virus community.