Re: Antivirus vendor conspiracy theories

["Dave Piscitello" <dave () corecom com>]

Don't raise your hopes too high. Spyware is a big-revenue addition to 
desktop security suites. 

I've been speaking with a number of vendors for several columns and 
reviews I hope to publish soon. I think you can *safely* expect 
traditional AV vendors to do what they've done with PFWs and 
incorporate spyware detection/blocking/removal under the guise of a 
common GUI, alongside their core AV engine. My suspicion is that when 
you open Task Manager on WinXP a year from now, RAM will be bloated 
with even more services providing "prophylaxis" against the many 
forms of malware. 

What seems very different with spyware (to me) is the staggering 
number of bogus products. I don't recall dozens upon dozens of 
companies claiming they removed viruses when they in fact *infected* 
systems, do you?

Compare to the current situation with spyware. When I isit the pest 
and spyware encyclopedia of the half dozen products I have tried and 
consider reputable, I find they all identify more than a dozen other 
purported "antispyware software" as spyware. Digging deeper, you can  
corroborate their claims by visiting "environmentalist/activist" 
antispyware sites. Several post copies of the EULA and privacy 
policies of these deceptive products, and by my definition, the 
companies identified as bogus do in fact exhibit characteristics I 
associate with adware, from collecting personal information to  
persistent installs (reinstall after removal).

Frankly, the problem is not exclusively IE (BHOs notwithstanding). Ad-
sponsored freeware (the self-inflicted wound) and deception (social 
engineering) aren't things we can easily rectify. 

So I think the market is a greenfield opportunity.

On 2 Dec 2004 at 23:09, Devdas Bhagat wrote:

> And I would say that preventing spyware and spamware from operating is
> not in the purview of the antivirus software. I would prefer that the
> A/V vendors do their job of fighting the viruses and related worms
> well, rather than trying to do everythign and do it badly. The Unix
> philosophy of do one thing and do it well is applicable everywhere.



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