|
The stereotype of virus writers as spotty nerds who can't pull is well wide of the mark, according to an expert on the psychology of virus writers. Sarah Gordon, senior principal research engineer at Symantec Security Response, said that the more recent idea that virus writing activity is focused mainly around money-making scams is inaccurate.
Chinese anti-virus firm Rising Tech has hit back at claims by larger Russian rival Kaspersky that it engaged in anti-competitive practices. In response to a 2 July lawsuit, Rising Tech says that Kaspersky made "six serious mistakes" involving anti-virus definition files over the last two weeks, Interfax reports.
Spanish police arrested a 28-year old man on Saturday they suspect of involvement with a mobile phone virus.
He is suspected of distributing malware which targetted Symbian phones. The arrest follows a seven month investigation.
The first independent tests of anti-malware products on 64-bit Windows Vista revealed a rash of false positives.
Of the 20 products submitted for testing to independent security certification body Virus Bulletin, six generated false positives when scanning a set of known clean files.
The computer virus turns 25 this month. Long-suffering computer users would be forgiven for thinking that the first computer virus appeared in the mid-1980s, but the first virus actually predates the arrival of the first IBM-compatible PC.
Elk Cloner, which spread between Apple II computers via infected floppy disks, has the dubious distinction of the first computer virus1 to spread in the wild. The malware is thought to be the work of Rich Skrenta, a 15-year-old high school student from Pittsburgh, who released it in July 1982.
The recent acquisition of SecureWave by PatchLink was not so much an acquisition as a merger, with PatchLink being the senior partner. With 3400 customers it had about twice the customer base as SecureWave and it also had about twice the staff.
The merger probably sent a shock wave or two through the declining AntiVirus industry, because it has created a bigger and more powerful whitelisting vendor. As far as SecureWave is concerned, it will now have three times as many salesmen out there pointing out that AV technology is ineffective. The drumbeat just seems to get louder with every passing month.
Along with the increasing interconnectedness of our computers, the sophistication of the software we use and the speed of the hardware comes increasing threats from a malicious type of software -- the virus. There is no question that everyone needs to protect their computers from viruses, but can it be done without spending lots of money to buy anti-virus software and spending even more money in yearly subscription fees to keep the software up-to-date? In a word, yes!
There may be software on your PC that hides itself like a virus, silently keeps tabs on your PC like a virus, and e-mails the data to the person who planted it like a virus. So why does your antivirus program not tell you about it? Good question.
For years, some people have used PC surveillance products to keep tabs on other people, much of it for legitimate purposes--by businesses that want to enforce computer policies, for instance. But they're becoming popular with jealous spouses and data thieves for spying on people.
Email worms and viruses are spreading via messages that are sent without your knowledge, and spammers use open relays established by viruses to send their junk mail through innocent computers turned spam zombies - yours, if you're not paying attention.
Redmond-based Microsoft Corp has announced that it is acquiring the "intellectual property and technology assets" of Bucharest-based GeCad software. According to Microsoft, the "acquisition of GeCAD's technology will help secure customers by providing antivirus solutions for Microsoft products and services." Microsoft has also stated that, "in addition to developing new solutions, Microsoft will use the GeCAD engineering expertise and technology to enhance the Windows platform and extend support for third-party antivirus vendors so they can provide customers with increasingly secure and comprehensive levels of virus protection."
|
