Ever wondered

[tome]

if the anti-virus industry has anything to do with the bored (yet brilliant) nerds who cause us all this grief?

'Angus, we need a new virus'

Righto guv, I'll get the lads on the case...

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[BrianJ]

IT could only take an IT brain like yours to work that out .... me I still have trouble spellin viros/ no viruus / oh what the hell.

BrianJ

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[boatless]

Having spent until 1.30 this morning using 4 different av packages, and finally finishing after another hour just now, yes, I do wonder.

My primary av was RAV by GeCad - the company M$ bought a few days after I bought the software! It didn't react to what I was sure was a virus in a .zip attachment, sent it to them for analysis, three times, no reply.

Norton couldn't find anything. Trend PcCillin found an old unopened email, but couldn't fix it anyway. McAfee missed everything.

Kaspersky - my tip for the most clunky interface, but it works. Found everything, and with a bit of coaxing it's now all gone.

I hope.

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[billmacfarlane]

A lot of the nerds who started writing viruses now work for the anti virus companies. I suppose it's a case of "It takes a thief etc...".

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[LadyInBed]

The AV package is only as good as the team of writers. Some teams may excel in one type of virus and weaker in another, their competitors might have different skills.

I think that there should be more pressure put on the service providers, to whom we pay a considerable amount, to weed things out before passing it on to their customer.


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[Captain_Chaos]

It never ceases to amaze me that the "internet industry" appears totally relaxed about the ease with which spammers can forge email addresses.

There was a case a few weeks ago when emails were circulated that purported to come from the bank of england.

In the last 3 days I have trashed over 400 delivery failure emails, all the result of a spammer who is sending emails using my company's domain name. This is particularly irritating when working away from the office and conecting to email via a mobile phone link.

<hr width=100% size=1>My drinking team has a sailing problem

 

[Ruffles]

Of course if you didn't use windoze you wouldn't need anti virus software at all

And of course most spam is relayed via PCs where SMTP relay has been left on - invariably microsoft machines as well.



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[tcm]

Not quite like that, ie not corporately decided ahem...but I am quite sure that some will be involved both ways. Years ago I shared a flat with a guy looking after computers in a large compnay, and then in his spare time at home he tried to wreck the security, often successfuly and expensively. Another example not quite the same was a guy responsible for systems inclusing the autocues on News at Ten who then hacked in just before the program and changed a few words and the newreaders followed his new phrasing. Tempting to put in some other more dramatically different words but in the strange world of nerdy types, that would spoil his chances of getting in again. ..

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[qsiv]

<<Of course if you didn't use windoze you wouldn't need anti virus software at all>>

And if we didnt use cars we wouldnt need petrol

<<And of course most spam is relayed via PCs where SMTP relay has been left on - invariably microsoft machines as well.>>

Surely just a reflection of market share?

Unix has been 'this years' operating system for each of the 20 years I've been involved in the computer industry. Never quite makes it! I gave up when I needed 4 different binaries for each of my 4 Sun workstations - impossible to run a non technical business that requires that level of technical input..

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[Metabarca]

Of course, nerds produce viruses for Windoze because it's market share ensures maximum damage. Macintosh is not immune to viruses but has fewer nerds using that platform. I for one opted years ago to avoid the grief and use the elegant, intuitive Mac OS instead of clunky old Windoze by Microsoft which was always better at bullying and marketing than writing software. What I cannot understand (given that most people use PCs for pretty bog-standard operations) is why so many leap lemming-like for Windoze and take on all the grief of crashes, viruses, compatibility issues etc.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>

 

[l'escargot]

I think it goes to show that even nerds can't be bothered with Mac.

Mac OS is a bit like The Independant, created for those that want to look down on others. Clunky is good enough for bog standard, who needs elegant and intuitive? Mac only really comes into it's own in publishing and printing which isn't what the average home user wants.

Windows is responsible for putting computers into the home, something Mac hasn't been able to do to any signiificant degree.

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