Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: AV Naming Convention
From: "Alerta Redsegura" <alerta () redsegura com>
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 13:57:25 -0500
Standardization is the solution: If precise rules are established to name viruses, then it is not even necessary that AV companies meet to decide on the name for every new virus. The problem here is the way viruses have been getting classified through the years, which leads to a "would-be-taxonomy" that reflects more economic and marketing interests than a "scientifically-driven" classification effort. A clear example is the use of "malware" as an accepted term encompassing viruses, worms, adware, spyware, etc. Malware stands for "malicious software". Can you categorically affirm that all viruses, worms and the like are made with a "malicious intention"? You cannot! But "Malware" is a term that sounds great to scare people and that's good for marketing purposes. So, what alternative could be used to describe what is known today as "malware"? What all these "entities" share is that they get to their destination without the user's consent. So, regardless of the intention at their origin, they all are "intruders". Why not call them, for example, "intrudeware"? Another example is the one of Trojan horses. How come some AV companies abbreviate Trojan Horses as "Trojans"? It is clear that if we are to follow this Trojan-Greek story, Trojans were the victims of the Trojan Horse, therefore "Trojan" would refer to infected software or equipment. What is clear here is that, contrary to the biological virus taxonomy, which follows rigorous scientific methods, computer virus classification (I dare not call it "taxonomy"...) as we have it today is far from being "scientific", and will continue so, as long as economic interest prevails on scientific interest. Regards, IƱigo Koch Red Segura _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- RE: AV Naming Convention Randal, Phil (Aug 10)
- RE: AV Naming Convention Todd Towles (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention ASB (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention nobody@localhost (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention Nick FitzGerald (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention Thomas Loch (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention Alerta Redsegura (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention Nick FitzGerald (Aug 10)
- RE: AV Naming Convention Todd Towles (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention Thomas Loch (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention Valdis . Kletnieks (Aug 10)
- RE: AV Naming Convention Frank Knobbe (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention ASB (Aug 10)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: AV Naming Convention Glenn_Everhart (Aug 10)
- RE: AV Naming Convention Todd Towles (Aug 10)
- Re: AV Naming Convention Jan Muenther (Aug 10)
- RE: AV Naming Convention Todd Towles (Aug 10)
- RE: AV Naming Convention Todd Towles (Aug 10)
- RE: AV Naming Convention Todd Towles (Aug 10)