ESET LiveGrid®

ESET LiveGrid® (built on the ESET ThreatSense.Net advanced early warning system) utilizes data that ESET users have submitted worldwide and sends it to the ESET Research Lab. By providing suspicious samples and metadata from the wild, ESET LiveGrid® enables us to react immediately to the needs of our customers and keep ESET responsive to the latest threats.

ESET malware researchers use the information to build an accurate snapshot of the nature and scope of global threats, which helps us focus on the right targets. ESET LiveGrid® data plays an important role in setting priorities in our automated processing.

Additionally, it implements a reputation system that helps to improve the overall efficiency of our anti-malware solutions. A user can check the reputation of running processes and files directly from the program's interface or contextual menu with additional information available from ESET LiveGrid®. When an executable file or archive is being inspected on a user’s system, its hashtag is first compared against a database of white- and blacklisted items. If it is found on the whitelist, the inspected file is considered clean and flagged to be excluded from future scans. If it is on the blacklist, appropriate actions are taken based on the nature of the threat. If no match is found, the file is scanned thoroughly. Based on the results of this scan, files are categorized as threats or non-threats. This approach has a significant positive impact on scanning performance. This reputation system enables effective detection of malware samples even before their signatures are delivered to the user’s computer via an updated virus database (which happens several times a day).

In addition to the ESET LiveGrid® reputation system, ESET LiveGrid® feedback system collects information about your computer related to newly detected threats. This information may include a sample or copy of the file in which the threat appeared, the path to that file, the filename, the date and time, the process by which the threat appeared on your computer and information about your computer‘s operating system.