Cyber-criminals turn to kernel-level malware

By Janet Harris

Kernel-level malware is increasingly being used to attack systems, according to security researchers at F-Secure.

Kernel-level malware acts inside the operating system’s kernel - the component that links the system to the computer’s hardware - compared with traditional malware which runs on top of the operating system.

Kernal-level malware operates with the same privileges and shares the same resources as the operating system itself. It can compete with security solutions protecting the system’s integrity against malicious attacks.

The use of kernel-level code is soaring and 2.63 new kernel malware families were found by security researchers every month in 2006.