[fw-wiz] Antivirus vendor conspiracy theories

MHawkins_at_TULLIB.COM
Date: 11/23/04

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    To: jmikesmith@yahoo.com, firewall-wizards@honor.icsalabs.com
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 08:33:58 -0500

    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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