Do antivirus software developers create viruses?

You get one moron who bleats out the BS theory of Norton and probably MacAfee and Trend Micro all conspiring to part people from their money by creating infections to justify the annual subscription fees and what happens? With some exceptions, a whole bunch of mindless sheep follow the lead and shout ''of course they are''. Lord spare me from the armchair IT gurus who think they know it all yet the truth is you could fit their knowledge on one tenth of a pinhead.

First of all I have no love for Symantec. I am an ex employee and with the exception of many of my former colleagues who I still consider friends, I have no warm or fuzzy spot of love for that company and my reasons are my own.

But here is what gets me so mad about you pea brains who spread this garbage or encourage others to do the same. The lies you write are not at a brand name, they are at the people who work for those companies. People make companies, not the brand and by creating these lies its not the brand you attack, its the people that you discredit and throw mud on their reputations.

How dare you infer that I or my friends deliberately with conscious intent created infections in order to deceive or commit fraud on subscribers. You have no more right to cast that accusation at me than I have to call any of you pedophile perverts.

Where is your proof? Why is it that not one ex employee of any AV product hasn't come out and said ''Hey guess what? The infections that plague the net are created by us for the sole purpose of ensuring that our employers keep their beamers and fancy houses''.

To the fools who suggest we were rolling in money. Hey I have a mortgage and a car loan and I can tell you neither property is that impressive. And then there's the real reverse MENSA candidates who conclude that definitions are resolved and released within 48 hours and that in itself is proof surely! Where did 48 hours come from? That was never a benchmark time average to resolving infections and in any event in reality you're complaining about a quick response time!!! So if we took 4 days or a week you wouldn't think we were crooks, just slack.


You got the proof, then put it out there and take it to the authorities. Otherwise ****, get a clue and grow up. Because I don't want some person at some time in the future read my CV and say, ''Hey tough luck sport, you missed out on the job that you?re supremely qualified for because there is a general perception that you participated in fraud when you worked at Symantec'' And all thanks to the fools who spread this vile garbage.

You're pathetic and you have no idea what you're talking about.

There's a lot of money to be made out there and who would not take advantage of such an opportunity to do that.Most antivirus developers are established in the market for some time now and they are the ones that can do smoothie things without anybody knowing that!!

good day all,

sure some of them - even if they don't make virus - they'll share as an underground way to increase their sales.

but a question remains: who will do aaaall these viruses.
regards
shayal

I wouldn't put it past some enterprising start-up to create a problem and then sell the cure. But it would doubtless become a nightmare as you try to update your "solution" to keep pace with the dedicated hackers and other nefarious folks. A case of "bad guy" becoming "good guy" out of self defense? Ironic if that scenario played itself out...

Self-perpetuating. Planned Obsolescence.
You name it. Sort of like a Tire dealer scattering nails or tacks in the street - to drum up business.

god-etc

I have my suspicions.

I have 3 anti-spyware programs.

Periodically on the internet my system is intruded by one company or another who tell me that my computer has been intruded and I need protection. When I run a scan, lo and behold! I do indeed need protection. But these intrusions are not picked up by the other anti-spyware programs. They declare me to be 'free' and 'secure'.

In my life, I have seen many gangster films. In these films, this kind of behaviour used to be called 'a protection racket'.

Another word could possibly be 'extortion'.

No names, no pack drill.

they don't have to create a virus, just the fear that you will be infected if you don't have their software. you buy a pc these days, it is locked tighter than a virgin with firewalls, anti-virus, anti-spy, etc. my computer was worse than my mother; open notepad and i get a message "hey, running a .exe file dangerous. are you sure? really, i'm serious, are you sure? what if it writes a file to your HARD DRIVE?"

no worries, though. if my dead nigerian uncle comes through, i'll be $50B richer. suckers.

There are more than enough technical astute amoral programmers out there to create the viruses that we see in the news day-by-day.

Too many of them have missions other than to simply annoy folks. (ie, spy programs, remote-control programs, etc)

Besides the international cyber warriers, organized crime is heavily into using malicious code to improve it's profitability (sigh!).

There are way too many folks who seem to believe the Conspiracy Theory that the whole world is ruled by a tiny group of invisible men (or women, but usually men) who call all the shots and control everything. I don't believe that for a minute. We have way too many folks who seem to believe that the Art Bells of the world "have it right on the dot" and "know what they are saying" and "have all the facts to prove what they say" - to which I say Hogwash!

Are there bad guys out there? Absolutely!

Should we be cautious about what we do online? Absolutely!

Dewfinitely! They all promote the best...etc... and ad newer features, that only serve to confuse the novice users into thinking their computer becomes immune. For example; Norton anti virus, Systems works. Norton ghost and Personal Firewall, are so confusing and complex to operate, that they are all separated into specific components. Not one of them will permit access to E-mail - Outlook, without requiring disabling to either read or send mail. To the novice user this triggers unsuspecting users to continuously search for a better product, because the user suspects that his PC has been invaded despite Norton's tools and kits, resulting in continuous uncertainty, reboots, restore and general confusion as to the integrity of his machine.

While I've got no real proof, nor would I really get into it if I did (not my business, I've got too much else to do), I'm fairly certain that it's happened more than once in the history of computers and virus writing. It may have not even been on purpose, but I'm sure it's happened at some time. It's life. People are people, sh*t happens, and life goes on. I mean really, how else would companies test their products unless they wrote at least *some* viruses. You've just got to look at it as a fact of life, not always a negative thing, just reality.
Happy Holidays,
Bren384

Firstly what kind of person would sit there and create a virus that could potentially damage there own computer as well as others. Fair enough you get people who want to commit fraud and stuff on the net but most of the viruses that go around don't even have them kinda of trojans (do they?).

Secondly they charge a subsciption fee, which is kind of a silly idea, fair enough they need to make their $$$$'s or

If I were to believe that AV makers write viruses to give themselves jobs, I might as well distrust everyone. I believe they academically write and rewrite virus cores for testing - that's what you hire the smart people for - to at least try and pre-empt the

I don't use AV software because it rarely works when it really counts - when the new viruses hit. And too often, its too late because the better viruses kill off the scanners.

I do download Stinger occasionally to satisfy myself everythings cool and as a backup plan in case someone needs it.

Most of the time, any AV software I have installed for people or on the job has caused me substantial grief with crashes and ongoing problems. New AV systems tend to be overly invasive and inclusive of firewalls and antispyware stuff. I don't like it at all.

Let's face it - the majority of people who get virused don't practice safe 'netting and frequently click on anything that says 'click here'. For them, I say pay the money and save the rest of us from the onslaught of their diseased machines....

There are more than enough jerks, sickos, etc. out there creating them. WE NEED TRACEABILITY to the computer that generated the virus. Do I have privacy problems with this? You bet. But I would rather have that than the total anonymity that exists now.

Great question. My technical buddies and I have discussed this many times and we think most folks need some reason to create a virus, such as terrorists. But since money drives so much of the industry the door is wide open for the same companies that thrive on antivirus software it has high probability. There is a nice business getting paid over and over annually for software anti-whatever upgrades that they want to keep the ball rolling buy creating threats. It's logical as Spock would say.

They have quite enough to do to combat irresponsible viruses unleashed on the PC by unscrupulous and downright dishonest people. I have heard in the past of one or two companies that did do this, but they didn't last long, people were soon wise to them.

ANY person who writes viruses, worms or the like should be prepared to face criminal proceedings and the loss of his equipment, includiing internet access. When these people can be "named and shamed", maybe, just maybe we will have an end in sight to this epidemic.

Antivirus programs from different companies are not all looking for the same type (or make) of virus.
When you run Norton for E.G. it finds some, then run McCaffee it finds another that Norton never found!!
The same is apparent for registry and spy programs,
none seem to be able to be an allrounder, surprise surprise, but they could be!: The program would just take a little longer to run, which does not matter because we, the punters are running 3 or 4 programs already to obviate any corruption. Solution...do not buy any products and starve them into oblivian, if you dare.
Or catch them at it ( no chance )
So I guess we are stuck with them, unfortunately!!!!
Rgds norman.

... that staff of virus companies may have a little to do with the production of threats that only thier products can resolve,... I once recieved a viruse in a download that for a fraction of a second flashed an advertisement window which I thought was for the McAfee anti-virus product, further investigation located the image and indeed it was,... I was running a Norton product at the time and the virus was not able to be removed without a visit to the McAfee site. The removal was successful, but who really knows who developed the bug, it could have been someone out to make McAfee look like the spawner. Removing a virus with different tools can be informative if you don't mind the troubles.

If word ever got out, and it would in the tech industries, that a virus protection logo was actually creating viruses to make themselves look good would be the end of the company. Also the risk they would project to the dumbies who don't have protection or do not keep their dat files current could open the door to the dingies in Washington having cause to convene hearings on the industry as a whole.

It's hards to tell for sure. On one hand, some antivirus software companies could do so to boost sales of their product for the short-term. But, on the other hand, the risk of being exposed would have damaging effects to the company's long-term sales and life, so they may not want to risk these long term efrfects. A good, reputable company like Norton, may not want to take that risk.