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"All malware, no matter the details of its code, authorship, or execution, must consume power. And, as PFP has found, the signature of malware’s power usage loo
by api 12y ago
"All malware, no matter the details of its code, authorship, or execution, must consume power. And, as PFP has found, the signature of malware’s power usage looks very different from the baseline power draw of a chip’s standard operations."
I stopped right there because I smell assumptions that any number of things might violate: background tasks, VMs, VPN software, background P2P networking software (e.g. belonging to a Kad network), auto-updaters, debuggers, system profilers, management software for IT asset control, etc.
That and malware authors would immediately set about working to make their power profiles more typical. What they've found is that current malware produced with no attention to obfuscating this aspect often looks different from current typical application code.
Can't see this being robust at all. Sounds like a whole pile of false positives too. I suppose something like this could be used as part of an array of detection methods deployed to devices to help monitor for suspicious changes in baseline activity that could then be investigated.
- warkdarrior 12y agoIndeed, the very next paragraph lists limitations: "Computers with users regularly attached to them, like laptops and smartphones, often have no baseline routine from which abnormal behavior can be inferred. [emphasis mine!] So, PFP officials say, their technology is at the moment better suited to things like routers, networks, power grids, critical infrastructure, and other more automated systems."
- SixSigma 12y agoShame you didn't carry on. All the interesting stuff was after that paragraph.
- azernik 12y agoI've found that if someone's comment says "I stopped reading at X", the comment is more likely to respond to an unintentionally-constructed strawman than to the actual article content.