Growing virus production taxes security firms
,----[ Quote ]
| The volume - if not the variety - of malware samples has undergone almost
| exponential growth over the last three years.
|
| Malware samples reached 5,490,960 in 2007, five times more than the 972,606
| recorded in 2006; which was itself almost three times more than the 333,425
| recorded in 2005
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/25/malware_surge/
See the links below. The AV software indutry is becoming pointless not because
the problem is resolved but because it's gettting totally out of hand (most
Windows PC are infected by malware). Now they even try to work together:
Anti-Virus Testing 2.0
,----[ Quote ]
| RoundUpA colleague of mine from McAfee Avert QA and I have just returned from
| a summit in Bilbao, Spain where more then 40 experts gathered together for
| almost two full days. Security researchers, QA people from many AV companies,
| independent AV testing bodies and magazine reviewers were present. The
| purpose of the meeting was to form a non-profit organization that would work
| towards improving testing standards for anti-malware products. We want to
| give help to everybody who is eager to be involved in the area of testing
| anti-malware security solutions. Helping computer users is what we do on a
| 24×7x365 basis and we very much want to promote quality independent testing
| because bad tests mislead, confuse, and frustrate everybody.
`----
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/01/23/anti-virus-testing-20/
Vista was just recently shown to be remotely compromisable (using a single
TCP/IP packet).
Dead end for Windows. The key developers escaped the company (links at the
botttom) which now shows vapourware (Windows 7 mockups) to some keep users
from running away to Macs and GNU/Linux.
Related:
Does antivirus have a future?
,----[ Quote
| Peter Gutmann, a researcher at the University of Auckland who presented the
| results of a study of the commercial market for malware at August's Defcon,
| estimates that a good virus programmer can make as much as $200,000 a year
| (here, a 660KB PDF). Alan Cox, an open-source security researcher, points out
| some additional possibilities. One is malware designed to sit under today's
| virtual machines. A proof-of-concept paper proposing such an attack, called
| Subvirt (PDF), appeared last year, written by three researchers from
| Microsoft and two from the University of Michigan. A presentation at last
| year's Black Hat security conference from Joanna Rutkowska, a researcher at
| Coseinc, a Singapore-based security company, covered a much leaner attack she
| called Blue Pill, which targets the virtualisation built into Windows Vista
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| and into current processors from both AMD and Intel.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/20/guardianweeklytechnologysection.spam
Antivirus Tools Underperform When Tested in LinuxWorld 'Fight Club'
,----[ Quote ]
| The results: Only three of the antivirus tools caught and blocked all 25
| viruses thrown at them. One tool caught fewer than 10 percent.
`----
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=131246&WT.svl=news1_1
Symantec security products less than secure
,----[ Quote ]
| Secunia rates the flaw "highly critical," the second-highest category in its
| five-tier rating system.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/09/norton_security_bugs/
Is an antivirus gap looming?
,----[ Quote ]
| The failure of antivirus companies to adapt to the dramatic malware
| appearance rates in 2007 tells us there's time for a change and there's room
| for a new class of tools. "AV is dead" is the battle cry of a new industry
| analyst report. Antivirus companies may not be going the way of the dodo, but
| to many customers, the concept of antivirus as the last line of defense has
| been thrown out the window. It's time for a better approach, one that can
| keep up and really defend networks.
`----
http://news.com.com/2010-7348_3-6195322.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Predicting the demise of antivirus apps
,----[ Quote ]
| "It's the beginning of the end for antivirus," says Robin Bloor, partner
| at consulting firm Hurwitz & Associates, who adds he began his
| "antivirus is dead" campaign a year ago and feels even more strongly
| about it today. "I'm going to keep beating this drum. The approach
| antivirus vendors take is completely wrong. The criminals working to
| release these viruses against computer users are testing against
| antivirus software. They know what works and how to create variants."
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/mgmt/0047A206FF40A92ECC2572C3000FD867
Linux Security: A Big Edge Over Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| Linux is better at locking down a computer than Windows. The Linux OS
| uses configuration settings and user permissions to a much more
| efficient degree than the Windows administrator account. To do
| this, non-enterprise users should seek help from third-party
| security suites that serve as configuration managers, James
| Bottomley, chief technology officer of SteelEye Technology said.
`----
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/54742.html
Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34978-2003Aug23?language=printer
If Only We Knew Then What We Know Now About Windows XP
,----[ Quote ]
| You can think of Windows XP as a house with a second floor built of
| spackle, wood filler and duct tape.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092300510.html?nav=rss_technology
Why Windows is a security nightmare.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/21/1085120110704.html
Study: Billions of dollars spent on security
,----[ Quote ]
| Large U.S. businesses will spend $61 billion on security by the end
| of this year, representing 7.3 percent of total IT budgets in the
| country, according to a new report from Info-Tech Research Group.
`----
http://news.com.com/2110-7350_3-6135989.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Finally, anti “bot” technology is launched, and it’s from Norton
,----[ Quote ]
| Now that a specific anti “bot” program has been released, from Symantec no
| less, the threat from bots, botnets and zombified computers are hitting the
| news more often, and is finally entering the mainstream users in a big way.
`----
http://www.itwire.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13585&Itemid=1105
Symantec Software Battles Vicious New PC Enemies: 'Bots'
,----[ Quote ]
| "We are seeing rapid increase in botnet infections," says Ed Kim, director
| of product management in the consumer division at Symantec.
`----
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/newsanalysis/itmanagement/10368181.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&&cm_cat=FREE&&cm_ite=NA
Botnet 'pandemic' threatens to strangle the net
,----[ Quote ]
| Cerf estimated that between 100 million and 150 million of the
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| 600 million PCs on the internet are under the control of hackers,
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| the BBC reports.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/26/botnet_threat/
FBI to Notify Microsoft Windows Users Who Were Victims of Botnets
,----[ Quote ]
| The Department of Justice and FBI have announced the results of
| an ongoing cyber crime initiative to disrupt and dismantle
| “botherders” and elevate the public’s cyber security
| awareness of botnets.
`----
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/10550/fbi-notify-microsoft-windows-users-who-were-victims-botnets
MS Insider: The Office Crew Isn't Smart Enough to Supplant Real Windows
Developers
,----[ Quote ]
| "With Alchin retiring, MarkL and MarkZ, two of the most talented
| architects in MS already having left, the picture gets really
| ugly for the Windows division," my friend claimed, and the BV's
| core team members, Ian McDonald, Jack Mayo, Todd Wanke, Clyde
| Rodriguez and others are starting to connect the dots.
|
| [...]
|
| He concluded ominously. "A trainwreck of biblical proportions looms.
| Pick a good seat on the sidelines, trainwrecks this large take
| awhile to complete. Vista may be the last MS OS for some time to
| come, especially if Cutler decides to play hardball."
`----
http://www.emailbattles.com/2006/09/11/ms-insider-the-office-crew-isnt-smart-enough-to-supplant-real-windows-developers/
http://tinyurl.com/35eqrt
Veteran Windows architect resigns from Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| On the heels of a week of news of a number of Microsoft executive departures
| and reshufflings, another has come to light. Rob Short, Corporate Vice
| President for Windows Core, has resigned from the company.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1110
|
|
