TRIZ Feature
Is anti-virus a Necessary Evil?
Using TRIZ Ideality and Contradictions to find out
what is Necessary and what is Evil
By- Umakant Mishra, Bangalore, India
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., http://umakant.trizsite.tk
Using Ideality to determine what is desirable
According to the concept of Ideality, the best anti-virus is “no anti-virus” or a “virus free environment where there is no need of any anti-virus”. However, for many practical reasons the above Ideal Final Result (IFR) is not possible to achieve in the present circumstances. When the ultimate IFR is not possible to achieve the problem solver has to take a step backward and consider a lower level IFR1. The best solution is that which is closest to the Ideal solution. The best solution is that which fulfils all the desirable functions of an anti-virus program without having any of its drawbacks.
Is anti-virus a Necessary Evil?
Using TRIZ Ideality and Contradictions to find out what is Necessary and what is Evil
By- Umakant Mishra, Bangalore, India
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., http://umakant.trizsite.tk
Contents
1. Anti-Virus Programs: a Background..............................................................1
2. Using Ideality to determine what is desirable.................................................2
3. The undesirable functions of an anti-virus program........................................3
4. Using contradictions to differentiate what is Useful and what is Evil .................4
4.1 The problem of selection and procurement .................................................4
4.2 Problem of Anti-Virus renewal ...................................................................4
4.3 Problem of updating Virus Database...........................................................5
4.4 Problem of Scanning Time ........................................................................5
4.5 Problem of system performance.................................................................6
4.6 Problem of false positives..........................................................................6
5. Summary and Conclusion............................................................................6
Reference: ....................................................................................................7
1. Anti-Virus Programs: a Background
While everybody is becoming more and more dependent on computers there are some
unscrupulous people who continuously try to misuse the technology and get illegal and
illegitimate benefit out of this sophisticated environment. Today the Internet is like a busy
street or open market place where you find almost everything you want. As there are
some obvious risks when you stand or move in a busy street such as you are likely to be
pick pocketed or cheated or even knocked out by a rash driving vehicle. Similar threats
loom over the head of a user when he is exposed to the Internet. There are viruses,
malware, spyware, spam, hackers and other malefic forces who not only damage the
computer system of innocent computer users but also do more dangerous things like
stealing their confidential data or stealing their identity to make bank transactions on
their behalf.
An anti-virus program is generally considered as a remedy to all the above problems.
The anti-virus program (including anti-spyware, internet guard etc.) not only detects the
malware in your system but also guards the computer system from external attacks
while you are surfing the Internet. It is supposed to detect if a spyware is stealing your
passwords or a hacker is making an inward connection to squeeze your PC. But is the
current age anti-virus program really giving a remedy to all these problems? Many
people think that an anti-virus program along with its siblings like anti-spyware, antiadware,
internet guard etc. create a lot of burden on the user. While the computer users
cannot afford to avoid using anti-virus programs most user fell it as a necessary evil.
2. Using Ideality to determine what is desirable
According to the concept of Ideality, the best anti-virus is “no anti-virus” or a
“virus free environment where there is no need of any anti-virus”. However, for
many practical reasons the above Ideal Final Result (IFR) is not possible to
achieve in the present circumstances. When the ultimate IFR is not possible to
achieve the problem solver has to take a step backward and consider a lower
level IFR1. The best solution is that which is closest to the Ideal solution. The
best solution is that which fulfils all the desirable functions of an anti-virus
program without having any of its drawbacks.
The desired solution from different prospective
From users’ perspective From a practical perspective
The computer should never get infected The computer should never get infected
(no need of purchasing, installing or after using some kind of protection like
maintaining any anti-virus software) installing an anti-virus product.
The user should not spend money on The anti-virus product should be free or at
buying anti-virus products nor waste time least cheap and should be extremely
and energy on installing and maintaining easy to install and maintain.
those products.
The user should not waste valuable The anti-virus should run fast and
system resources for running anti-virus consume minimum system resources.
that could have been used for other
purposes to increase productivity.
1 Umakant Mishra, Using TRIZ for Anti-Virus Development, Chapter-6: “Using
Ideality to find the Ideal anti-virus solution”.
As a “no virus environment” is practically not possible, using an anti-virus is the
most accepted solution in the current scenario despite of its various drawbacks.
3. The undesirable functions of an anti-virus program
Any system is built to achieve its Main Useful Functions (MUF). The concept of
Ideality in TRIZ helps us to determine what are the useful (or desired) functions
of a system and what are the harmful (or unwanted) functions. If we apply that
concept on an anti-virus system we can find the actual anti-virus requirements of
an end-user and how much of it he is getting from an anti-virus program.
Unwanted Functions Useful functions of Anti-virus program
The Anti-Virus System
A user gets an anti-virus program with a view to get rid of one type of problem,
i.e., virus infection. But unfortunately after installing the anti-virus he gets into
more and more problems of different types. The problem begins at the time of
searching for a good anti-virus and continues throughout the life afterwards
during scanning, updating, upgrading, renewing, reinstalling etc.
The concept of Ideality tells us that the Ideal anti-virus system should consist of
all useful functions and should be void of any harmful functions. But this feature
of ideality is not easy to achieve. While improving the anti-virus system in this
direction we come across various different contradictions. When we try improving
one part (or aspect or functionality) of the anti-virus system it results in worsening
another part (or aspect or functionality) of the system. These situations are called
contradictions. Defining the contradictions help us clearly visualize what is
desirable and what is not desirable in a system2.
We will not discuss the drawbacks and limitations of anti-virus systems as we
have discussed it earlier in separate articles3. We will just illustrate a few
contradictions solving which can eliminate the evilness of an anti-virus program.
2 Refer to other articles on “contradictions” in the reference.
3 Umakant Mishra, Methods of virus detection and their limitations, TRIZsite
Journal, Feb 2007
4. Using contradictions to differentiate what is Useful and what is Evil
Contradictions are conflicting situations in a system where improving one
parameter of the system affects another parameter of the system which results in
a deadlock situation. For example, “scanning all types of viruses requires a lot of
system resources thereby makes a system slow.” In this example, “scanning” is
desirable but “affecting system performance” is undesirable.
Before solving a problem it is important to define a problem. Formulating the right
contradiction defines the exact nature or technicality of the problem and helps to
solve the problem in the right way. The following are some of the problems faced
by users presented in the form of contradictions. These contradictions clearly
differentiate as what is desirable and what is undesirable in an anti-virus system.
4.1 The problem of selection and procurement
Selection and procurement of the right anti-virus product is a difficult job for an
ordinary computer user. The user has to compare various aspects of the product
like the price of the anti-virus, renewal costs, user friendliness, performance,
reliability, load on computer resources etc. An ordinary user cannot be sufficiently
knowledgeable to evaluate various aspects of an anti-virus software in order to
choose the right product. What is the contradiction?
The common user wants to install an anti-virus program that is best
in its performance but cheapest in price. But choosing the best antivirus
is not easy even for an experienced technocrat. Even specialized
organizations engage full time professionals for doing anti-virus
evaluations. The common user wants to use the best anti-virus but
does not want to spend time on evaluating anti-virus products.
4.2 Problem of Anti-Virus renewal
Even if a person buys an anti-virus product his difficulties are not over. In order to
ensure continuity of anti-virus service, the current day anti-virus venders renew
the product by automatically taking money from the credit card numbers given by
the customers. Although the problem of forgetting about renewing of the antivirus
is solved, this mechanism leads to other problems as below. What is the contradiction?
If the customer does not opt for automatic renewal then he may
forget to renew the anti-virus product at the end of the year which
may result in discontinuance of the anti-virus service. On the other
hand if he opts for automatic renewal then the money will be taken
from his credit card even if he has stopped using that product. The
customer wants an automatic renewal but he doe not to pay money if
he has already discontinued using that product.
4.3 Problem of updating Virus Database
With the current mechanism of virus detection, installing an anti-virus program is
not enough to prevent viruses. One has to update the virus definition database
on a regular basis. But updating the virus database is a boring job and the user
often avoids to update until the virus affects him again. What is the contradiction?
We want to scan for the latest viruses but we don’t want to download
the latest virus database from the Internet because it is a boring and
time consuming job. Even if we update the virus database we don’t
want to spend time and resources for the purpose.
4.4 Problem of Scanning Time
The continuous increase in the population of viruses increases the size of
signature database which in turn increases the required scanning time. With
hundreds of thousands of possible virus types and hundreds of gigabytes of file
storage a complete virus scan can take an enormous time which is simply not
acceptable to any user. What is the contradiction?
If a scanner includes less number of signatures or less number of
algorithms then there is possibility of some viruses being escaped. On
the other hand if a scanner includes all available signatures and all
possible algorithms then the scanning will take very long time. We
want to apply more scanning methods to detect all types of viruses,
but at the same time we want to apply less scanning methods to
finish the scanning fast.
4.5 Problem of system performance
Running an anti-virus consumes significant amount of system resources and
affects the system performance negatively. An anti-virus loaded system takes
more time to boot, more time to shutdown and runs slow while executing other
programs. That’s why many users don’t like running an anti-virus. What is the contradiction?
We want to run an anti-virus to keep the computer free from viruses.
But we don’t want the other programs to run slow because of the
burden of anti-virus on the computer. In other words, we want the
anti-virus to scan the computer, but we don’t want it to affect the
performance of other programs.
4.6 Problem of false positives
There are situations where the anti virus program finds a file to be infected
because of insufficient heuristics. Some device drivers are stopped because of
false positives. In other cases the anti-virus finds that a system file has been
modified but it cannot be sure about whether the file has been modified by a virus
or by the user. In such a situation, if the program generates a virus alarm it may
lead to a false positive. What is the contradiction?
If the anti-virus program is not definitive about a suspicious
alternation in a system file and raises a virus alarm then it may lead
to a false positive. On the other hand if it ignores such a suspicious
alteration then it may lead to a false negative. Both the situations
are dangerous.
5. Summary and Conclusion
While the anti-virus has become a necessity, it has many negative impacts on
our day-to-day computer usage. The anti-virus frequently connects to internet to
download its updates and patches and consumes our Internet bandwidth. When
the anti-virus scans the computer, it consumes significant amount of system
resources thereby making all other programs running slow. An anti-virus program
consumes more memory and processor than an average harmful virus. Hence,
the anti-virus program is considered as a necessary evil by almost all users.
While there is no problem of it being necessary, there is a need to make it free
from its evil characteristics. This is possible by finding and eliminating
contradictions within the anti-virus system. The TRIZ method of defining
contradictions clearly points out the conflicts in the system, showing what is
necessary (or useful or desirable) and what is not necessary (or harmful or
undesirable). However, there are also contradictions in the super-system of an
anti-virus system. While the end user wants a virus-free environment and does
not want to see any computer virus in the world, the anti-virus developer does not
want the same. The anti-virus developer wants some virus to survive for the
survival of their business. Solving contradictions at higher level in super-systems
can lead to tremendous results.
Reference:
1. Umakant Mishra, “Using TRIZ for Anti-Virus Development- Building better
software through Continuous Innovation”, 2013,
http://pothi.com/pothi/book/umakant-mishra-using-triz-anti-virusdevelopment
2. Umakant Mishra, “An Introduction to Computer Viruses”,
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1916631
3. Umakant Mishra, “An Introduction to Virus Scanners”,
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1916673
4. Umakant Mishra, “Methods of Virus detection and their limitations”,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1916708
5. Umakant Mishra, “Solving Virus Problems by Anti-Virus Developers - A TRIZ
Perspective”, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1978385
6. Umakant Mishra, Solving Virus Problems by Computer Users- a TRIZ
perspective, TRIZsite Journal, Mar 2007, http://trizsite.tk/trizsite/articles
7. Umakant Mishra, Solving Virus Problems by System Administrators- a TRIZ
perspective, TRIZsite Journal, Mar 2007
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1977496
8. Umakant Mishra, Introduction to the Concept of Ideality in TRIZ, TRIZsite
Journal, Oct 2007, http://www.trizsite.tk/trizsite/articles
Is Anti-Virus a Necessary Evil, by Umakant Mishra http://umakant.trizsite.tk
9. Umakant Mishra, The Ideal IFR is no IFR- Criticism to the TRIZ concept of
Ideality, http://ssrn.com/abstract=2282002
10. Umakant Mishra, “Improving Speed of Virus Scanning- Applying TRIZ to
Improve Anti-Virus Programs”, http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1980638
11. Umakant Mishra, Overcoming limitations of Signature scanning - Applying
TRIZ to Improve Anti-Virus Programs,
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1980629
12. Umakant Mishra, Improving Speed of Virus Scanning- Applying TRIZ to
Improve Anti-Virus Programs, TRIZsite Journal, Apr 2007
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1980638
13. Umakant Mishra, Finding and Solving Contradictions of False Positives in Virus
Scanning , TRIZsite Journal, Apr 2012, also at http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4652
14. Umakant Mishra, Contradictions in Improving Speed of Virus Scanning,
TRIZsite Journal, May 2012, also at http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4660
15. Umakant Mishra, How do Viruses Attack Anti-Virus Programs, TRIZsite
Journal, Jun 2012. also at http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.5420