Dell Releases A New Cybersecurity Utility To Detect BIOS Attacks

Computer manufacturing giant Dell has released a new security tool for its commercial customers that aims to protect their computers from stealthy and sophisticated cyberattacks involving the compromise of the BIOS.

Dubbed ‘SafeBIOS Events & Indicators of Attack‘ (IoA), the new endpoint security software is a behavior-based threat detection system that alerts users when BIOS settings of their computers undergo some unusual changes.

BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is a small but highly-privileged program that handles critical operations and starts your computer before handing it over to your operating system.

Protecting the BIOS program is crucial because:

• Changes to the system BIOS settings could allow malicious software to run during the boot process,
• Once a hacker takes over the BIOS, he can stealthily control the targeted computer and gain access to the data stored on it,
• Malware in BIOS remains persistent and doesn’t get away even when you format or erase your entire hard drive,
• Attacks against the BIOS are typically hard to detect because they are invisible to antivirus and other security software installed on the system,
• With stealth access to one of the compromised…