I don't have a link, but their is a conspiracy theory about the "top" AV software companies. The theory is that the "top" AV companies will actually hire people to write virus's and trojans for the specific purpose to keep them in business. When an AV software company has been having a rough time, they will hire a programmer to make a virus and then give them the details on how to block it so they can look like the knights in shining armor. This is illegal in the US, but nothing stops them from paying some russian hacker under the table to do this task for them.......thats the theory and something to really think about. What can really stop the AV companies from doing this?
I think it was Torx who had the winner, Kapersky is it. That would also explain the virus on my kids rig, they use Limewire a lot and the AV we have is through SBC, Symantec to be exact. Funny that the russians have the top AV.
-shrug- i could believe either way, no matter. who would want their stuff if they didn't get legitimate viruses fast? and who would want their stuff if they knew that they sent their own viruses out intentionally (if this is true). meh. take it or leave it. though somehow i did get some virus described as a 'test lab virus' or whatever the term was. one supposedly never to make it public... meh to it all. good article.
I'll see if I can find it but I read a story once where both McAfee and Symantec were accused of creating a virus during a downtime.
Apparently you guys don't know my alter-ego on slashdot. ;-) Munir is a sham. Check out my comments: I used to be in charge of exploit research and antivirus updating for a major branch of the government. Munir writes nothing but crap, I used to come across his articles all the time and they used to piss me off. They don't name the other "leading" vendors, but Kaspersky gets a mention with it's incredible pass rates. Kaspersky makes a decent product, but there is a reason they only have a 0.7% share.
top 3 in my opinion is nod32, kas, avast its up to you to test and try them out before buying.. they dont have a strong share because it just isnt as popular as symantec or mcafee its a sad and disturbing thought that these companies are out creating virii just to turn around like knights in shining armor to repair their own creations.. for money. We all know its happening but we cant do anything about it unless we program and create our own av for free.
Nod32 is at the top of my personal list, but in most corporate environments, Trend Micro is going to get the go ahead because of its remote management features and seamless auto-upgrading.
this whole thing makes you wonder if microsoft makes their own exploits/fixes and uses the update system as a means of catching bootleggers..
I checked out nod32. Except for the price I like it. 3 PCs w/ firewall and 2yrs support would be $235. I have SBC/AT+T online that includes norton. I really don't keep business records on pc so I'll backup what's important and live with it.
i just used nod32 and downloaded a virus to see if it would detected and no luck.! Whats the best damn antivirus prog out ?!!!
NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING can replace, or even hold a candle to, patching ALL of the software on your box on a routine basis. Also, if you have a basic home router, password protect it, upgrade the firmware, and look into fixing arp/dns poisoning issues.
I have to correct a post I made in this thread, specifically, the part about ARP issues. I am afraid that there is no real way to stop someone from poisoning the ARP b/c its really a protocol flaw rather than a flaw in the hardware itself. To those who don't know what this means: basically, even if you are on a datalink layer switched network where you can't see traffic other than broadcasts on other ports of the switch, an attacker can poision the arp and tell both the switch and your computer that the attacker is you and vice versa. So, all traffic can be sniffed once that is done and you best hope that you are in love with SSL and strong 12+ character passwords unique to each application that requires a password. Now, if you are connected to a wireless network, forget about it, all traffic is broadcast and you are free game just like above. edit: now, if you aren't running a wireless home lan, or you know there is nobody malicious on your lan, you should be in the clear. The attacker needs to be on your network for the sniffing to work.
u guys are so fucking stupid, you really think they need to hire poeple to create viruses? If you guys believe this, than you'll get a real kick out of what poeple say about the moon landing!
Yeah, gotta back Cartman on this one. If it were found that one of the virus software companies were involved in something like this it would be front page news and there would be DOJ involvement. Maybe I'm just naive...
I don't doubt that it would be serious business. Financial impact of viruses are serious business. Business pays a lot of money for added IT resources (manpower/software) to ensure their systems are stable and no data loss occurs. So basically, the financial impact of viruses is huge. The real impact of viruses isn't Johnny computer gamer having to reformat. It is in the $$$ loss that we don't see directly.
http://www.softpanorama.org/Malware/index.shtml I can't find the link from years ago where the major AV companies were accused of writing their own virii...however to not believe that they won't do that is to believe that price gouging at the pumps doesn't exist.
And virus companies know coorporations will pay BIG bux for the latest and greatest protection against these threats, so why not pay some russian hacker under the table to engineer some software, "leak" the details to them, and then they look so great and get the coorporate subscriptions. Not all countries have laws against this kind of activity, so no, the DOJ would not be able to get involved, let alone prove shit. People with "skills" can be found anonymously on many IRC and newsgroup servers. Saying something like this would never happen is like saying microsoft still doesn't have a monopoly. EDIT: Cartman, they "hire" someone else to make the viri, because, engineering software like that is illegal in the USA, but not in some other countries.
