Do you remember the dark ages? When every executable file was like opening pandoras box. We where in desperate need of digital signatures for executable files, or so we thought.

Virus signatures has gone from 100k to 500k in just a short period of time and the number of threats trough XSS, injections, broken auth etc has exploded in the last couple of years. So why did file infectors stopped being a serious problem a few years ago? Did the A/V industry found a miracle cure for viruses? Was it the modern OS running in protected mode?

It’s a simple matter of user habits, a change in logistics trough modern file sharing. People simply do not exchange executables that often as 10 years ago. Today, people rather download an executable from the web rather than copy it from a friend’s computer. The way collective and modern file sharing is setup it’s simply impossible to spread a binary virus in the wild.

There were no new A/V technology or mass signing of files and the protected mode of any OS is still not really a binary virus killer. The binary virus simply became outdated in the process of human interaction along with the BBS and other ancients. Collective sharing truly killed the binary virus.

/ itcommie