Antivirus vendor conspiracy theories

[MHawkins () TULLIB COM]

Hi Mike,

your analogies don't make a good comparison between the attributes of BAD
THANGS!

> From a driving perspective, snow is a somewhat immutable substance unlike
computer viruses. So when you buy snow tires, you pretty much know what to
expect - a slightly better driving experience in the snow.
Portable generators are not just for power blackouts so they serve as
enabling devices to help people get work done in locations that are remote
from the power grid. Therefore the power generator vendors market their
products for multiple uses. There are significant differences in the
attributes of a burglar alarm as compared to computer viruses. First,
burglars have been using the same modus operandi (attack vector) for
hundreds if not thousands of years, it being called break and enter. Most
break ins are via a window or door. Burglar alarms protect specific attack
vectors that remain constant and are demonstrably capable of doing the job
well.

This makes the burglar alarm, portable generator and snow tire vendors very
predictable in their product offering and the customer is suitably informed
as to the various benefits and or limitations that such products provide.

Antivirus vendors have painted themselves into their own conspiracy theoried
corner by purveying a product that is based on technology that is purely
reactive and for the last ten years they've use one method of protection
thereby enabling other attack vectors to be repeatedly successful. 

To use your own analogies, there is nothing proactive about locking a door
after you've been broken into, there is nothing proactive to driving slower
in the snow after you've already ended up in a ditch, and there's nothing
proactive about remembering to gas up the generator after the power blinks
off. Yet, that is what antivirus vendors are selling to the consumer and
they're marketing spin tells the average joe "install this product and
protect yourself from dangerous Internet viruses, worms etc" while year
after year major infections spread and the consumer, faced with the
cognitive dissonance between antivirus vendor marketing spin and the reality
of a system rebuild, crashes, deleted files etc, wakes up and realizes that
the antivirus vendors are peddling an awful product that really doesn't
protect their system at all.

Enter the conspiracy theories!

Mike H


-----Original Message-----
From: firewall-wizards-admin () honor icsalabs com
[mailto:firewall-wizards-admin () honor icsalabs com]On Behalf Of Mike
Smith
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2004 3:13 PM
To: firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com
Subject: [fw-wiz] Re: Ethics & hiring


 --- Bennett Todd <bet () rahul net> wrote: 
> Anti-virus companies are in a very, very awkward position. Their
> business is profitable solely because of the widespread problems
> with viruses; if it weren't for all the malware authors, they'd be
> out of business. They make their money on viruses.

I feel that there's something wrong with this argument.  This would seem to
be
a core characteristic of any market that sells products that defend/protect
you
from Bad Things.  Examples would include snow tires (snowstorms), portable
generators (power blackouts), and, perhaps more relevant to the discussion,
home security systems (burglars).  Would there not be an incentive for
manufacturers of any of these products to somehow increase the frequency of
Bad
Things to boost their sales?  Is it just because viruses are easier to
create
than snowstorms, blackouts, or burglars that we view anti-virus vendors with
such suspicion?

I need convincing that anti-virus vendors are in a more awkward position
than
any other manufacturer of anti-Bad Thing products.

=====
Mike Smith

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and
catastrophe."
                        H.G. Wells - The Outline of History

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