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Security Blog

Technical explainers and comparison articles on Windows security, published by the ShieldGuard developer based on real development and testing experience.

Technical

What Are YARA Rules? How Malware Detection Works — and Where It Fails

A real incident from running 19,000+ rules in production: how an overly broad rule triggered false positives.

ShieldGuard (Antivirus)
Comparison

Windows Defender vs. Third-Party Antivirus

What to look at when comparing the built-in Defender with additional software.

Antivirus
Technical

How File Tamper Detection Works

How Windows' file system change notifications work, and how EDR tools use them.

EDR
Technical

How to Check Your Home Network for Vulnerabilities

What CVEs and the KEV catalog are, and why home routers get targeted.

Network Scanning
Technical

What Is Windows Antivirus Software?

Free vs. paid vs. one-time-purchase, and the basics of how to choose.

Antivirus
Technical

A Windows 10/11 Security Checklist

How to think about combining protection for your PC, your files, and your network.

General
Technical

What Is the OSI Model? Layer-by-Layer Security and How It Maps to TCP/IP

The threats and defenses at each of the 7 OSI layers, with a mapping table to the 4-layer TCP/IP model.

General
Technical

What Is Encryption Strength? How TLS Works, and the Computational Cost of DH, ECC, RSA, and Lattice Cryptography

What encryption strength really means beyond key length, and why the progress of algorithm research is the biggest risk of all.

General
Mathematics

The Deep Math of Elliptic Curve Cryptography: Deriving the Group Law from the Riemann-Roch Theorem

The relationship between the divisor class group and the Riemann-Roch theorem behind ECC's geometric addition law.

Mathematics
Mathematics

Number Theory and Elliptic Curves: The ABC Conjecture, Szpiro's Conjecture, and Their Relation to Cryptography

Why the ABC conjecture and Szpiro's conjecture connect through the Frey curve.

Mathematics
Technical

What Are Quantum Cryptanalysis Algorithms? Shor's Algorithm and Where Lattice Cryptography Stands Today

What quantum computers have already broken in theory, and what they haven't.

General
Technical

What Is Quantum Communication? BB84 vs. Entanglement Distribution, and Toshiba's Development History

The difference between two approaches to quantum key distribution, and the entanglement swapping mechanism that makes quantum repeaters possible.

General
Technical

What Is Quantum Internet Security? Threats and Defenses in Quantum Communication Infrastructure, Layer by Layer

Why quantizing key distribution alone doesn't make the quantum internet safe.

General
Technical

What Is a Quantum Computer? Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation and Where Each Company Stands

Why physical qubits can't be used as-is. A rundown of error correction and each company's implementation approach and latest developments.

General
Mathematics

What Is Grover's Algorithm? From a 2-Qubit Model to the General Case

Why the 2-qubit case finds the answer in exactly one iteration. Generalizing the idea of amplitude amplification.

Mathematics
Mathematics

Quantum Information Basics: The No-Cloning Theorem, Tensor Products, and Density Matrix Diagonal Elements

Why does the result of a quantum computation always come from the diagonal elements of the density matrix?

Mathematics
Technical

Semiconductor Fundamentals: From CMOS Design to Wafers, Oxidation, Lithography, and Doping

Laying out the process flow — repeated dozens of times — behind the completion of a single transistor.

General