Microsoft and Intel develop antivirus software that turns malware into 2D images that can be examined by a neural network
- The software, called STAMINA, converts malware bits into 2D images
- It then examines those images using computer visions software
- The approach could reduce the number of data points examined by software
- It has shown a 99 percent success rate in classifying malware
Microsoft and Intel have partnered up in an effort to develop a new kind of malware detection.
The project, called Static Malware-as-Image Network Analysis (STAMINA), is a joint effort by the tech giants to develop a software that sniffs out malicious code by converting it into greyscale images that can be assessed by utilizing deep-learning.
Intel and Microsoft say a new kind of virus-detecting software called STAMINA converts malware into 2D images that can be scanned by a computer vision algorithm (stock)
Specifically, STAMINA converts one-dimensional malware bits into two-dimensional greyscale images and then ‘looks’ at the images for patterns that may indicate specific types of malicious code using computer vision software designed to analyze images.
One the image is assembled, STAMINA then resizes it into a smaller dimension to make it easier to view.
This compressions, according to researchers helps avoid needing the software to assess billions of pixels – which would likely slow the process – and does not negatively affect its ability to identify malware.
According to ZDNet, STAMINA is trained using millions of examples of malware pulled from Windows Defender – an antivirus software made by the company – and has shown early promise in its missions to spot computer viruses.
The system has a little more than 99 percent accuracy with classifying malware and a false positive rate of below 2.6 percent.
The approach could help reduce the amount of data that needs to be scanned by algorithms and make malware detection more efficient (stock)
The AI apparently has apparently shown more success with smaller file sizes but according to Microsoft, STAMINA could eventually be deployed to focus solely on smaller files.
Either way the tool could be an improvement over current methods of scanning for malware that create very large data points and increase the chances of malware falling through the cracks.