Do antivirus software developers create viruses?

Short List of Reasons:
1. No antivirus company seems to be more than a day or two later/earlier in devising a fix. (Guess they all are in collusion with the black helicopters)

2. The risks vastly outweigh the rewards:
a. Get caught and your company has lost all creditability and thus sales/subscriptions.
b. Get caught and be the defendant in about as many lawsuits as can be imagined. Each case would carry the liability for an award much greater than your company annual revenue.
c. Given the propensity of state and local law enforcement officials to attempt to obtain indictments on even vague suspicion. (did we just smell political ambition) you would find yourself in court in multiple jurisdictions charged with all manner of crimes. Then there are the racketeering laws, telecommunications laws and lord knows what else.

3. Why bother since the world seems to be full of antisocial types, politically motivated people, script kiddies, professional criminals and perhaps even unethical competitors who are busy creating all the virus and trojan code you all encounter every day.

It all sounds rather farfetched to me ... how about you?


PS Some of you may recognize my name since I was on the startup team at Symantec. Please be reassured that I left Symantec in the summer of 1984 long before the company entered the antivirus business. I have no pecuniary nor other conflicting interest with the company. Just calling the shots as I see them.

There's enough people doing the writing already.

They are probably over worked now with new viruses every day.
Employers don't hire more labor than they need. They usually keep the bare minimum workforce and use whips on them as they did me before I retired. Programmers and good machine language gurus are too busy now to write such trash.

There have been some companies in the past who have done such things. But, in these days with snitches, I mean, whistleblowers in every company at every level, it would be hard for companies to do these types of things. With the potential of book deals and "15 minutes of fame" most people will snitch, I mean, blow the whistle in split-second. Also, another reason comes in the form of organized crime who may want to extort companies or steal information and so on. Companies don't have to engage in these types of practices. There are plenty of threats out there to warrant the need for antivirus software without the companies potential dishonest involvement.

I do not believe virus software developers create virus for the purpose of selling (at least not reputable companies such as Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, etc.). There are plenty of ignoramuses out there doing that job quite nicely. I don't even like a question like this. It seems to show a very poor attitude toward good people and good companies who are trying to protect us.

Everyday there is a new virus definition and every minute there is a new update and upgrade for os and the virus software which interferes with windows function, which might as well be a virus itself causing the system to slow down anyway while downloading all these so-called downloads.

I dont believe that it would be good business. The liability of getting caught outwieghs the profitability.Antivirus developers do need to understand viruses. So they might develop simular viruses to test the programs they have.

Look, historically corporations have gone to a lot less trouble to ensure profits--there is an abundance of evidence to support this--so paying some 15-year-old PC whiz under the table to provide less-than-harmful computer viruses to ensure their business's continued survival doesn't really strike me as all that far-fetched.

That's not to say that *all* viruses are paid for by the anti-virus industry (I'd estimate just 10% or less right now), but I would bet that if every virus coder suddenly stopped producing their nasties, the companies would quickly move to ensure that the flow of viruses never completely stopped.

Why do you think AOL has suddenly resorted to fear-mongering? Because they have nothing else to sell. Look at all their ads over the last 6 months--hacking, phishing, cracking, spying, etc., etc. If consumers won't buy your product on its own merits, then scare the consumers into buying them simply out of fear of the unknown.

Follow the money, people.

Most anything is possible, but it is highly improbable that an AntiVirus maker would risk all by creating his/her own monster. Ethics aside, the liability is too great. Besides there are plenty of people on the other side of the fence, with Beavis & Butthead-like mentalities that seek aggrandizement by trying to outwit the good guys in the cat and mouse that is ?Virus vs. Antivirus?.
Then there are the trojan makers.

the top developers base their entire business on trust so the risk would be too great for them to get caught.

If an antivirus company was ever linked to a virus outbreak the backlash against the industry would be horrific. This would be the death knell of any company engaged in that activity and would cause the institution of government controls would stifle the growth of any companies left standing in the aftermath.

Why would they pay someone to do this when there are idiots out there doing it for free?

It is just too easy a scam for nobody to have tried it.

Hello,

Not the good, old, reliable, useful Anti Virus Companies like Symantec, Norton, Nod32, etc. Absolutely not.

But the field is lucrative. Obviously the more virii that are created the more necessity for an anti-virus program. Unfortunately many small struggling companies that are offering cheap, free, or barely effective programs which incorparate lucrative spyware and other malware programs will also find it to their advantage to develop virii. And I can't help but believe they do so. If their ethics are such that they see no problem with incorporating the spyware, keytrackers, trojan horses, ad-servers, then they would see no problem with developing a new virus and circulating it.

Adios. melking.

I believe that the developers are constantly busy with resolving solutions to the continual onslaught of new virus created by others.

In addition they are in competion to improve there products to gain a larger share of the market to increase profits.

Finally I believe the risk is to great for this type of behavior, that if discovered the developler would almost immediately destroy the firm's reputation.

The result is obvious.

I believe the software developers have a lisense to print money!! They play on the fear factor of millions of people world wide and I find it amazing when the sales of products dip slightly up pops another major threat!! coincidence? I don't think so.

If they did it would surely help their bottom line. I run several free anti-spyware programs back to back. One of them always detects spyware that the other three don't, and the only way to clear it is to upgrade to the $$$$$ version. Hmmmmmm

Some time ago the thought crossed my mind and I still think is a possibility. Who benefits from virus mayhem? Only the creators (whatever their intnentions are) and AV companies. I'm not saying all viruses are created by AV companies, but hey, I think a couple of them could have been...

The first time I heard of the virus concept was around 1968. We would sit around and discuss the theory at break time, and several people who had heard about someone it was done to were always present. Nobody ever said "I did it". The idea was just too awful to contemplate actually doing it.
(If you have never booted a 60's era computer it may not be possible for you to understand just how awful.)

However, times have changed. It's a well established fact that spyware removal groups detect non-existent spyware, and, add more spyware. So why not cultivate a virus?

Yeah, I think it's them [those who develop anti-viruses] that create viruses just for the sake of the whole process being BUSINESS...I mean they earn out of it though someone else would call it HARMLESS FUN...as long as you end up spending when your machine is infected, thats their target...Besides how do they keep track/truck (sp) of all NEW VIRUSES so they develop the right antivirus for them just un time????????...
Josh Mwesigwa,Uganda East Africa

Probably - it would be counter-productive. A tremendous risk of losing their market if found out - which they would be.

it can happen. My example:
A few months ago, I noticed that Norton updated my virus definitions; shortly thereafter, my computer (XP-Home Edition) had a window popup that after clicking on the little x it would not go away. I did everything; including logging on to Symantec. Nothing was listed. I mentioned it here and someone gave me the advice of copying and sending it to Hi-Jack this. Which I did; nothing; still pop up window. I did discover that it might be the VUndo virus. I ran Stinger; nothing; I gave up to wait on Hi-Jack this. 24 hours later; I decided to try Symantec again; and guess what? Right there on the page just happened to be a tool for Vundo B virus. I downloaded it; ran it; the window was gone. Now tell me about that one!
Brand new tool that day for a brand new virus only Norton users got this one.

I think some viruses may be created by legit manafactures of software/music,for example people like Sony who have been in the news lately. These people have a lot to gain if viruses get on file shareing sites. Then you may be more inclined to buy legit music/software.

To get caught as an antivirus provider creating (or sponsoring the creation of) a virus would present a huge financial risk. And since there are so many others out there already building viruses, why waste the effort?

-Vince

Where would all their revenue come from if all the spyware, malware, and viruses were eradicated? As soon as there is a fix for one batch of problems, another slew of them appear. Of course they would say that was preposterous, but remember "Monicagate"?
J. H. Renehan, Jr.

There is always going to be people with challenged ethics.

It's mighty strange that the top 2 antivirus programs seem to battle over the "I've got the fix!" each time a virus is launched... like just last week, we had a rash of computers that had the trojan vundo virus that Norton could not remove! Funny thing that the McAfee systems did not have the problem... hmmmmm you say? What is it with these troublesome "viruses" anyway? What other purpose would they serve? Unlike a "worm" that proliferates itself via your e-mail contacts and steals info... these seem merely to be around to drive me nuts!
I'm open for any answers anyone has on this subject. And more than interested in fixes!