What are today's antivirus software trends?

I've seen two exciting trends in antivirus software. First, because of specific requirements like PCI DSS and HIPAA, many of the large vendors are starting to address risk management and compliance, in addition to just antivirus software. This area of information security is important because many teams are burdened with trying to prove they have met various regulations in addition to keeping up to date on their AV signatures. Anything that gives security folks more time to watch for and respond to intrusions is a good thing. This move also makes sense because organizations have antivirus installed on all of their systems.

The second trend I am seeing in antivirus software is a shift from the blacklist/signature approach of detecting...

malware to more of an application whitelisting one. Using whitelists, a vendor can define which software is approved to run on your system rather than focusing strictly on identifying bad signatures and malware. I believe that focusing on what should be running on your system is far more effective than trying to identify all the possible malicious programs.