Is Antivirus Software the Virus?

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against all of this are a few dozen antivirus companies, staffed with dedicated men and women who everyday try to anticipate what the criminals will do next and keep you safe. These are the same antivirus vendors and the same men and women that someuninformed folksaccuse of making “sure we’re vulnerable so that they can sweep in and protect us from harm”. Sigh. Death, taxes, and baloney. Please remember, today’s malware authors really aren’t script kiddies. Don’t condem the people that protect you from them.

Chris PirilloIs Antivirus Software the Virus?So, what would happen if the world was suddenly rid of viruses and malware? Would the companies making millions (if not billions) of dollars from products and services aimed to keep you protected suddenly find themselves out of business? Isn’t in

Is Antivirus Software the Virus?

Re: closed source, ClamAV is proof enough that the argument is bogus.

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There is an open source anti-virus engine that works fairly well, and relies on signature contributions from the community – Clam AV.

clamav is open source, and seems to do a pretty good job of things. By Peter’s reasoning, clamav being open is contributing to the increasing nastiness and difficulty of new viruses. Has anyone in the AV industry ever made that claim? Perhaps clamav is making that contribution, yet the big commercial players don’t want to call them out on it because they feel it keeps them in business?

Open and transparent development by quality developers will increase the security of things. I know there have been studies showing that OSS doesn’t magically create more secure software, and I don’t doubt that. I specifically qualified that by using “quality developers” as an ingredient. Just because people can see the code doesn’t necessarily mean they can get past it. And keeping the source closed hasn’t prevent people from making better/stronger viruses.

Should encryption algorithms all be closed because it would make it easier for someone to determine how to crack the encryption otherwise? It doesn’t seem to be the case in the encryption world – some of the best tools there are open source. Why should AV be any different?

I suggested much the same when I wrote a post that equated AV companies as the new snake oil salesmen

http://www.winextra.com/2007/03/01/security-software-the-new-snake-oil-salesman/

Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner, someone get this man a prize. :)

It’s the oldest marketing strategy in the world – create a problem, sell the solution.

In this case though, it’s work on an exploit filled OS, offer band-aid solutions as they come up and reap the profits. ;)

Peter’s wrong on this one.
Most virii these days are written by script kiddies who can’t tell the difference between a FOR loop and a Ford Focus. Giving them the source code and preparing for new and terrible computer attacks is like giving a preschooler a recipe book expecting him to cook a cordon bleu dinner.

I’d recommend switching OS to Linux or OS X, but that would mean those platforms would lose their current benefit of being in the minority, therefore not worth targetting, and therefore not susceptible to the same level of interest by the bad guys.

Interestingly “Which?”, the consumer association in the UK, recently published a study saying that free security software performed as well, if not better than the paid for stuff. SO maybe we’re the mugs for buying the stuff in the first place.
London Times article

I switched to a Mac a couple years ago. When Parallels first came out I installed it (not in bootcamp) along with Windows XP Pro. I decided not to install any ant-virus or anti-spyware bloatware in Windows. I do IT support for a research laboratory so I am fairly computer savvy. I figured I was pretty safe using common sense and good security practices.

Its been something like 8 months and so far I’m still clean. I periodically download anti-virus/spyware trial versions and scan just to make sure. I have a hardware firewall, I keep Windows patched and make sure I update all my software (flash, java, media player, etc). Just common sense stuff. I do cheat and use some security scanning software from work to keep up with software updates.

I don’t do email in Windows or share files with anyone so its not a totally true to life test. As soon as others come into play their common sense or lack thereof will be your downfall. All that type stuff is done on the Mac. I may be reckless but I’m not stupid,

I use Windows for games, chatting with Yahoo and Paltalk and I use Firefox in Windows for all my general web browsing. And I’m not at all careful about where I surf. I don’t use IE at all.

I have a clean backup of my Virtual machine just in case I get hit but so far its not been needed.

It’s been a fun experiment.

Don’t try this at home.

[...] anti-virus software could at some point go to open source. Chris Pirillo recently looked at whether anti-virus software is the virus. In the post, he looks at the effects open source would have on an anti-virus. The post is very [...]

Open Source is communism I tell yeah!!!!!! [Note: Sarcasm]

Howdy, BenR from the chatroom…

You say open-source, but I say just make the damn thing free.

If you expand your view to include plain ‘free’ av, you’ld see there’s so much more.

True, most free av is trialware… but on occasion there’s actually a free version available for personal use. I am currently using AVG, a totally free for personal use AV. It has done a wonderful job of cleaning anything and everything… it includes a real time scanner- something most free AV is lacking. Couple this with the free spyware protection they provide… and my machine is adequately protected with DAILY updates.

Open source AV…. good idea methinks in principle… in practice, it might never work methinks…

How’s about simply creating an OPEN SOURCE DEFINITION UPDATE? That way, anyone could get the damn patch out for the latest nasties… and it would promote comparing different companies strategies for removing virii… so, say… how CompanyA can’t kill msblaster if it is in one stage of infection, but CompanyB can ONLY kill it in this one stage…. then CompanyC can come along and ‘fix’ both of those to make a cure-all single solution.

The idea that ‘most’ virus makers would use this information to make better viruses is true… but it would take them forever en masse… most of these virri nowadays are script kiddies toys to begin with, and those kids ain’t going to suddenly stop scripting and start coding…

By the time those virii makers get there individually [in stepping up to becoming real programmers], the larger collective of users would have progressed even farther. The real worry here is defection to the dark side… If you can solve that somehow, then we’ve won.

just my $2.00 (too much posted for pennies)

Anyone recall Terminator 3???
Using an Intelligent computer to track down a virus, a virus that was caused by that same computer.

Of course AV programmers are writing viruses.

The only app that stopped and eliminated the sasser worm – remember that? It’s thanks to Lockergnome I was alerted to it – on my system at the time was WinPatrol, which is a non-specific protection system. At work, it took those MS certified guys running MacAfee and Norton whatnots a month before they were even aware of being infected. Go figure.

It is a vicious circle, has been since the start. Come up with a business idea thats self sustaining. Its no different than Judges letting killers out to kill again. Keeps them in kickbacks and the Lawyers makin money.

Firefox is opensource… for those of you too slow to realize the implications of what I’m saying (like the person who posted saying AV programs should be Closed-source), firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer, an closed-source browser maintained by Microsoft.
And as far as hackers being able to input malicious code into the AV program, many open-source projects have a psuedo-company that oversees development and would prevent this from happening.

PS. I really doubt that judges intentionally let killers go in hopes that they will go out and kill again. That concept sounds like an internet conspiracy theory to me. I’m not denying anythin about AV makers making viruses though.

IMO, He is wrong. Security by obscurity is not good security. ClamAV is an a free program and it is a success so far.

I don’t use any anti-virus software anymore because I take care about what I download and which files to execute (common sense)

On Windows, You can live without any av software if you keep your Windows copy constantly updated..it really makes a difference. The only annoying thing is that viruses that comes through USB pens (I clean them on Ubuntu).

Same applies to Ubuntu (=linux :P) , Running sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade every now and then keeps your system in good shape. I still haven’t seen a linux virus.

–user:alnokta
VISIT WIKIPEDIA!

nortan anti virus is to me i used to use it an it eats up your memory its a joke how much it take up and it has been this way for a few years i go with nod 32 its light on the hardware and its updated auto at least once an hour its a great choice for all windows users

i don’t think it’s would be a good idea to open source anti virus programs
if that did happen i think computers over the world would die from virus’s that were put in anti virus programs from hackers!