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 real-world environments, 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 identify the nature and scope of global threats, which helps us focus on the most relevant targets. ESET LiveGrid® data is important in setting priorities in the automated processing.

ESET LiveGrid® implements a reputation system that helps improve the overall efficiency of our antimalware solutions. A user can check the reputation of running processes and files directly from the ESET product'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 hash is first compared against a database of whitelisted and blacklisted items.

•If the file is on the whitelist, the system considers it clean and excludes it from future scans.

•If the file is on the blacklist, appropriate actions are taken based on the nature of the threat.

•If there is no match, the system scans the file completely.

Based on the scan results, files are categorized as threats or non-threats. This approach significantly improves scanning performance.

The reputation system enables effective detection of malware samples even before their signatures are delivered to the user's device via module updates (which happen several times a day).

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