Do antivirus software developers create viruses?

I?d like to tell you a short story:
A village carpenter is having dinner with his big family, when they hear someone
knocking at the door. A neighbor from the other side of the village, a poor woman
comes in and starts to cry about holes in her roof and fall bringing the rain, and the following winter.
The carpenter tells his elder son to go and fix this woman?s roof
the very next day and do so properly.
During the next day?s dinner the son proudly reports to the father about his job well done, and expects the father will praise him, however the father just asks him whether he made another hole.
The son looks shocked and asks: ?What about properly fixing the neighbor?s roof? ?
The father answers: ? Of course, you can be proud of you job well done, but never forget
about your next day?s dinner!?

If there was a company out there paying people money to come up with virus' I would believe otherwise.

Given what it is, I just don't see too many people sitting on a computer for hours on end coming up with a virus just to make other people money!!! What's the point of doing that? If you come up with a dandy virus, I don't think taking credit for it to be in the limelight is wise!

So YES, I do definitely believe that those who sell anti-virus software have a vested interest in virus development, and support such causes. How they do it, well that's another story...

This seems like it's stretching the truth. All the big virus tracker companies like certain AV companies, and of course the govt, want to find whose letting these viruses go free and hunt them down. If a new virus from, lets say Norton were to be released, the govt could track this new virus to the Symantec Corp. Since Symantec is a big company, it could be in a lot of trouble for doing something like releasing a new virus. I'm not saying that it is impossible, but very unlikely to do something like that provided the consequences are so big. Also, how would they transfer the virus. They woudn't transfer it to a big well-known server because that'd make themselves too obvious and probably crash the server, getting them into even more trouble. Or, they could release the virus by going on their website. Let's see, well I went onto the Norton website and I got this virus. It is also too obvious.

Hmmmm.....

Funny how they just "happen to have" a cure for the virus right there a few minutes after it's discovered, eh??

Why would they create a virus just to sell their software when there are already so many hackers and freaks doing it. The challenge is to second guess them and stop them in their tracks (too bad they can't do that literally)

I think it could be possable that the anti-virus makers could be making viruses.

__
__For testing perposes, you have to have somthing to test for. That means one uses mal-ware to see if your software can defeat it.
__That requires some under standing what the bad stuff is and how it works. Which leads to what if the bad guys do this or that. And if they do, how do we block it.
__So, by doing good stuff, you learn to be a bad guy ! And following the disease analogy, there will be the accidents caused apathy ( So who cares actions. ) that lets bugs get loose. Very rarely is that done deliberatly.
__There is little reason to add to the virus inventory, because there are a gazillion people all ready doing it.
__
__ Dr Hoo2

Companies spend a large amount of money on marketing. They are always pointing the importance and necessity of their products. Just consider the equality:
NO VIRUS = NO BUSINESS
If ethics and morality is high in the scale of values of an antivirus producer, he won't be tempted. But what if...
"Find a need, fill it" becomes "Create a need, fill it".

i have three antispyware programs running on my pc and none of them can find spyware yet when i try other programs they tell me i have spyware on my pc and expect you to buy before cleaning your pc so where does all this spyware go....

Really, do you think you want people to use your antivirus product? You would, right? Well, say a virus just so happens to trace itself back to Symantec, and Norton AntiVirus is the only antivirus package that is able to find and delete it. Then what? No coincidence there, folks!

I'm sure there are some evil types with nothing better to do.However,if you purchase from a reputable company (and make sure you are actually dealing with "that" company through the verification methods available) you can trust that they are working for the betterment of all internet users.

I can understand that it would keep them in a job. I don't think that is incentive enough for responsible employees. Plus, the software end-user support would be staggering.. legal implications if caught would also be an incentive NOt to develop viruses would be enough. People who create viruses are power-tripping monsters who are generally unemployed either by circumstance or choice with time on their hands with personalities as malicious as the viruses they create. Would you want someone like that working for you????!!!!!

The possibilities for virus's are endless. You must be aware by now that there is no such thing as a Virus Protection Program unless the virus code is known. If there were, you would not have to scan your computer, as the new virus would be detected and deleted or quarantined before it could harm your computer.

Computers are not intelligent. They can only perform as well as we program them to perform. In order to be on top in the virus software community, they must be writing thousands of virus files to update the ability of their program to detect them. A few are written by hackers and such, but most are not in the general domain. They show up in schools where the first thing after teaching you to write ''hello world'' is to teach you to write a virus.

I believe when they develop the code for what could be a dangerous virus, they notify the computer community and add it to their detection library for their program. a virus or trojan like ''coolsearch'' or ''Blaster'' is rare. Most are just a nuisance. The Software programs become more effective as they develop more virus code definitions.

First of all, any respected antivirus software developer who created viruses to sell their software would be foolishly violating basic business ethics (not that that isn't done every day by some) and would lose all respect and all of their business instantly if this were ever discovered. They'd never sell another piece of software. Secondly, there are a sufficient number of conscience-absent (get a life) hackers out there who are perfectly willing to develop and spread viruses all by themselves, free of charge (but not charges). The likes of Symantec, Trendmicro, and McAffee are, I believe, ethical and fine business people.

I rather think that they have their hands full just staying on the lookout for the next problem to crop up and fighting it when it does. There are enough ner-do-wells out there to keep them busy enough with just fighting the war; I don't think they'd have much time left to expend contributing to the problem. That's not to say that one or more of those employees out there wouldn't contribute to the problem just for job security or just to test their skills. We humans have an unbelievable capacity for hybris.

Who else would waste their time creating these useless pieces of software? Well, maybe bored or dared college students.

Dale J. Martiny

Watch out for the little green helicoptors..
Bill Gates' releases software with bugs, so we have to buy new releases..
C'mon Guys; Chill out..

Dixie (OR) They have enough to do trying to keep up with all the viruses, trojans, worms, etc., that the hackers create.

yes, i beleive they do, i also think most providers
are adjusting and giving there clients tweeked anti viruses.

If they were, all would be clamoring to tell the world how only their users were safe and/or how quickly (in minutes) they were able to respone.

Whenever I have gotten a virus on my pc, all of a sudden there is always some company's ad that is plastered all over the screen(mind you that I have not gotten ANY popups before the virus)telling me that I have a virus on my pc and that if I pupchase their software it will remove it..this is extortion !..they infect your pc any way that they can , and then they wanna charge you to remove the same virus that they created and sent out on the web...it should be a 1st degree Felony.. even if they paid someone else to do it ...that is why affiliate programs should be stopped right away..they pay people to send people to send their software company business ANYWAY they can ! also it should be that if you wanna do business ANYWHERE in the U.S. you should be made to provide working phone number to be contacted and that number be manned by a live operator

I would assume that they are too busy keeping up the worms and viruses from the wild

Yes...another way of getting into our pockets...Fear factor.

It's like umbrella makers, there will always be rain to keep them in business. When business is slowing down, they could even recirculate a few old ones. But I view writing their own as a last resort to save their bacon. Like the H-bomb.

Raoul

You know, call me ignorant, naive or just plain old stupid, but I've NEVER considered that antivirus software developers would create viruses in order to increase the use of their products.

I read that opening question and went "WHAT?!? Really!?..." After pondering the implications, I wonderd if this question was asked to simply make for some controversial conversation, or is there truly a basis FOR such a question?

I took a two-week class at our local tech school last year on viruses and virus protection, and during the class we were given a very curious demographic: the creators of viruses are generally young (16-25), brilliant (IQ of 140 and above), bored males from Europe who seek out and enjoy a good challange. Seems that these types would be more the anarchist-type who would want to create problems for big-business developers.

Unless - of course - they are hired BY them...

My answer is probably not, but I have my suspicions. Here is what I mean.

I am quite confident that the Symantec's, Computer Associates, and Mcafee's of the world are not. There are
some "lower tier" (particularly the free ones) that I
have my suspicions about (both in creating something
that they can uniquely catch first, or in injecting
unknown to the end user spyware into the antivirus
offering.

- ctoguy

every thing is possible . as an example at work they create the antivirus and at home they create the virus . that would be a very nice way of making money and who can tell me that all this is true or not . nobody knows only the developers themselfs