funsec mailing list archives
RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses
From: Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com>
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:18:17 +0100 (BST)
On Sat, 19 Aug 2006, Larry Seltzer wrote:
People think they write the viruses, people think they deliberatelyhype the problem, people think that AV products should be made so they don't need updates. I first heard this rumour back in 1989. Vendors back then were explicitly competing based on the number of viruses they protected against, and there were rumors of shady consultants who did "black ops" for the vendors. I'm sure Dr. Solly knows all about this.
Actually, I don't. This is the first time I've heard a rumour about shady consultants who did "black ops" for the vendors. The rumours I've always heard are much simpler "I bet the AV companies write a lot of these viruses, or pay to have them written." I'd get asked that at just about any conference. So often, that I developed a standard answer. "A) If I do that and get caught, then I get put in prison, and B) why the hell (heck for delicate USA audiences) would I pay someone to do what dozens of kids are doing for free?, and C) I'm not going to use the "it's unethical" argument becuase a dishonest person would claim to be honest."
The rumors had a lot more logic to them back then than they do now. What's the competitive value of protecting against the marginal Bagle variant?
They had no logic then. All the AV folks I knew, were at full stretch just keeping up with the freebie viruses, why would we waste our programming time writing more? Plus the "if you're caught you go to jail" argument, means that using a consultant to do this would be *really* stupid. _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses, (continued)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Larry Seltzer (Aug 24)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses David Harley (Aug 24)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Drsolly (Aug 24)
- Re: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah (Aug 21)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Larry Seltzer (Aug 20)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses David Harley (Aug 20)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Larry Seltzer (Aug 20)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses David Harley (Aug 20)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Drsolly (Aug 20)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Drsolly (Aug 19)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Larry Seltzer (Aug 19)
- RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses Drsolly (Aug 19)