Kaspersky Lab has patented a hardware-based antivirus solution in the United States. The device is supposed to scan all data passed from the hard disk to the CPU and RAM, blocking any malicious code it detects. The device is said to be particularly effective at blocking rootkits or bootkits, complex threats that inject themselves into low-level system components.

The patented device is installed between a drive (hard drive or SSD) and the computing unit (CPU and RAM) and is connected to the system bus or integrated into the disk controller. The hardware antivirus solution allows or blocks writing data to disk, providing threat alerts and information about its operation to the user (user dialog is possible if the hardware antivirus control utility is installed on the PC). The device can work on a standalone basis or in conjunction with a software antivirus application.

A very good feature of this technology that it is not dependent on the operating system's configuration as it operates at the hardware level.

The device uses its own updateable antivirus databases that are protected from malicious code and faulty records during updates. It does not consume any resources on the computer to which it is connected as it comes with its own CPU and RAM.

[ via Kaspersky News]