Peter Szor

Background

Peter Szor (Hungarian: Peter Szor) was born on July 17, 1970, in Balatonfured, Veszprem County, Hungary. He was a graduate of the University of Pannonia. Szor developed an interest in computer viruses around 1990, at a time when the personal computer virus phenomenon was still in its early years and antivirus software was a nascent industry.

Early career: Pasteur and F-Secure

From 1990 to 1995, Szor wrote and maintained his own antivirus program called Pasteur, distributed in Hungary, making him one of the early independent antivirus developers working outside the established commercial vendors of the era. He subsequently worked as a lead virus researcher and antivirus engine developer for F-Secure (then known as Data Fellows), a Finnish security company, further building his expertise in virus detection and disassembly techniques.

Symantec Security Response

In 1999, Szor joined Symantec, where he became a security architect within Symantec Security Response and worked on designing and building antivirus detection technologies used in the Norton AntiVirus product line. Over more than a decade at Symantec, he was recognized as the company's chief antivirus researcher, a role in which he studied emerging malware techniques including polymorphic and metamorphic viruses, worm propagation methods, and code-emulation-based detection. He was a frequent speaker at industry and academic security conferences, including Virus Bulletin, EICAR, ICSA, RSA Conference, and the USENIX Security Symposium.

The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense

In 2005, Szor published The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense through Symantec Press/Addison-Wesley, a comprehensive technical reference covering the history of computer viruses, virus classification and behavior, antivirus detection algorithms, and worm-blocking and defense strategies. The book was written specifically for security professionals and antivirus engineers rather than a general audience, and it became widely regarded within the industry as one of the most thorough technical treatments of malware analysis published to that point.

McAfee and later career

Szor left Symantec and, from 2011 until his death, worked at McAfee as Senior Director of Malware Research, where he continued research into new approaches for detecting and stopping malicious software. During this period he also served as an advisory board member for Virus Bulletin, an industry publication and conference focused on malware and antivirus research.

Death and legacy

Peter Szor died on November 12, 2013, in California at the age of 43. In May 2014, Virus Bulletin established the Peter Szor Award, given annually to recognize the best piece of technical security research published that year, an honor that has been awarded to researchers and teams from antivirus and security firms including Kaspersky Lab. The award, along with the continued citation of his 2005 book in malware-analysis curricula and antivirus engineering literature, reflects his lasting influence on the technical practice of virus research and defense.

Timeline

• 1970-07-17Born in Balatonfured, Veszprem County, Hungary.
• 1990Begins writing and maintaining his own antivirus program, Pasteur, in Hungary.
• 1995Ends independent development of Pasteur; goes on to work as a virus researcher and engine developer at F-Secure (Data Fellows).
• 1999Joins Symantec, working on antivirus detection technology for the Norton AntiVirus product line.
• 2005Publishes The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense through Symantec Press/Addison-Wesley.
• 2011Leaves Symantec to join McAfee as Senior Director of Malware Research.
• 2013-11-12Dies in California at age 43.
• 2014-05Virus Bulletin establishes the annual Peter Szor Award for outstanding technical security research in his memory.