Should I trust the company that built the AV software?

[Lucas Jr.]

I don't feel like it has to be a "foreign hacker"... it's security, so,
paranoia is welcome. the hacker is next door. nor I think that it would
reallly be necessary to register all software with a certifying authority...

Richard Stallman, and Mr. Zimmerman would say, I think, that it'd be
murderer to free software society. or there's no case where this security
model wouldn't be acomplished by x509 certificates (or even PGP keys,
GnuPG?).

but your advise is extremely well based.

 

[Duane Arnold]

there are lots of things about security with you software, and grows
as grows the responsability of what your processes do with you data,
and your data itself. think about the exemple from Mr. Plummer.
some postings below...

As far as I am concerned, a good AV, NAT router, host based FW or a
similar application behind the router, apply security updates and other
updates when needed, watch what's happening on the machine on a routine
basis with software tools designed to it, and your common sense goes a
long way in the protection. It has served me well.

If you're not happy with your particular setup, then find a better setup,
because that's all you can really do anyway.

And above all, the protection starts with the O/S and everything else is
secondary to it, if you have one that security can be implemented.

Duane

 

[Lucas Jr.]

security companies get out of this bussines lots of money. I don't think
they will ever need some day need, but I don't see why they could not write
some viruses to deploy their own "quality software". the malwere we have
today had grown to a level where it's not a boy with his old mac writing
code to destroy windows anymore, it's turned into a bussines too, just like
antivirus, the mydoom, DDoS, I think that the poeple that coded this
software had a good job in software enginering, some one just like a
resercher... well, I think that SCO will install an antivirus next time it
sue the Linux Kernel people...

clamav says it detects 20.000 malware, symantec says it's over than 60.000 i
think bitdefender had grown a lot, well, I think that this number, the
number of viruses detecteable, deals with the overall quality of the AV
software, and if I write my own viruses that myself only has the code, I'm
gonna be the first that detects it, maybe even before someone has being
infected with it. not just viruses, but "official hoax" are acceptable
in this figure, why not desesparete the cusmomers so that they are gonna
spand more attension next time with av security?

and it was not even a a word about the Mr. Plummer case.

 

[Duane Arnold]

because I don't like viruses. think.

Oh, I am thinking that you have nothing to prove to anyone here. And by the
way, I am a C, C++ and VB programmer myself and have been doing it oh I
guess since about 1980, since I saw in one of your posts you tried to bring
that to the table. So what?

Duane

 

[Lucas Jr.]

hum... good...
I don't know if it's a server job to deal with malware... the people from
postmastering should deal with delivering of emails... what it's within (my
opinion) it's up to the sender and/or receiver.

I din't think about firewalling the hosts, but it could, of course, be the
subject of these postings too... the entire security area would fit here...

sorry, what does "O/S" mean? operating system? what one do u use? lots of
people will use win98 (stupid) architecture, or, don't know if it's better,
winnt tech running their machines as the Adminitrator... what help could one
have with it...? install one UNIX machine?

ps: is Mr. Heather a friend of yours?

 

[Lucas Jr.]

this kind of post makes me feel like it's personal... good you are a VB
programmer, real good, I almost hate VB, but that's good. in 1980 what
VISUAL basic IDE did you use...?

we are almost fighting... "peace and long life"...

 

[Duane Arnold]

this kind of post makes me feel like it's personal... good you are a VB
programmer, real good, I almost hate VB, but that's good. in 1980 what
VISUAL basic IDE did you use...?

At the time son, it was just Quick Basic. At the present time, I am
studying for the .Net MCSD. Do you feel the need to go off the *deep end*
with all of this?

Must you display the *Chicken Little*, I know something and everyone must
hear me roar, and I just got to take it and go off the *deep end* with it
mentality?

What? Are you at the *two years* old stage here or what? Do we need to
prepare a bottle and a Pamper for you?

Do I need to *killfile* you? Let me know son on your next post so that I
can prepare you.

Duane

 

[Conor]

At the time son, it was just Quick Basic. At the present time, I am
studying for the .Net MCSD. Do you feel the need to go off the *deep end*
with all of this?

Wow....must be REAL hard using a high level programming language. Real
people programmed in pure machine code back in the 80's. Guess you
weren't up to the task. Personally I found it quite easy but then again
its been so long since I've done any programming I'd need one hell of a
refresher course.

What? Are you at the *two years* old stage here or what? Do we need to
prepare a bottle and a Pamper for you?

Strangely thats the impression YOUR posts gave me.

 

[Duane Arnold]

Wow....must be REAL hard using a high level programming language. Real
people programmed in pure machine code back in the 80's. Guess you
weren't up to the task. Personally I found it quite easy but then
again its been so long since I've done any programming I'd need one
hell of a refresher course.

Yeah right. I programmed in machine lanuage back in the 70(s) on the PDP
8 and 11 computer systems. Personnally I found it all quite easy too --
big deal.

Strangely thats the impression YOUR posts gave me.

You should ask youeself do I care about what your impression of me is
about.

Anyway, this whole thread is *much do to about nothing* and don't let the
brick hit you in the *head* as it falls from the sky.

Duane

 

[Heather]

Hi Heather,

I'm Brazilian and my mother tongue is portuguese. "Com muito
orgulho." what made you think about Italy? my brown eyes?

Muy bueno.....grin. I am a Canadian female, but my husband grew up in the
West Indies and still remembers how to speak spanish. I am not a programmer
or anything so grand......just an ordinary computer user with an interest in
malware.

Cheers.....Heather

 

[FromTheRafters]

Like our Frederic......I admire people that can converse fluently in 2 or
more languages......

Duz inglish an' hillbilly count as 2 languages?

 

[FromTheRafters]

security companies get out of this bussines lots of money. I don't think
they will ever need some day need, but I don't see why they could not write
some viruses to deploy their own "quality software".

I don't dismiss the conspiracy theory 'out of hand', but I don't
believe that they would need to do anything of the sort just to
maintain a marketplace. There are (and likely always will be)
a marketplace for such software, and the risk of being caught
doing anything underhanded would outweigh any benefits they
would hope to gain from such activity.

the malwere we have today had grown to a level where it's
not a boy with his old mac writing code to destroy windows
anymore,

....or malicious payloads that attack only IBM clones.

it's turned into a bussines too,

Yeah, they've sided with the spammers and probably profit
from writing malware.

clamav says it detects 20.000 malware, symantec says it's over than 60.000 i
think bitdefender had grown a lot, well, I think that this number, the
number of viruses detecteable, deals with the overall quality of the AV
software,

It is one of many things to consider when attempting to rate the
'overall quality' of a vendors AV software.

and if I write my own viruses that myself only has the code, I'm
gonna be the first that detects it, maybe even before someone has being
infected with it.

Yeah, this theory surfaces from time to time - that is, if you are
suggesting that this is something that they actually do.

not just viruses, but "official hoax" are acceptable in this figure,

No. For a virus count, one should count only viruses. The same
applies for other malware categories. Hoaxes don't count at all.

why not desesparete the cusmomers so that they are gonna
spand more attension next time with av security?

I'm not sure I understand the above comment, are you suggesting
that non-threats (such as joke programs) be included merely for
educational reasons?

and it was not even a a word about the Mr. Plummer case.

:O) The scheme he mentioned for AV seemed to me to be a smaller
version of the scheme of TCPA which would apply to all programs
the user requests to run on the machine. The hardware implements a
means to authenticate the trustworthiness of a program before it is
allowed to execute.

 

[Heather]

Duz inglish an' hillbilly count as 2 languages?

No, you ditz!! (G) Shhhh, Sooooooooooge might see this and decide to come
back and make our lives miserable with his lowzy hillbilly inglish, chuckle.

 

[Ant]

...

...just an ordinary computer user [...]

And boy does it show!

[snip 130+ lines of broken unreadable unnecessary quoting]

Sorry H, couldn't resist and no offence meant, but you really ought
to get that OE under control.

 

[Bart Bailey]

In Message-ID:<[email protected]> posted on Thu, 15 Apr

Duz inglish an' hillbilly count as 2 languages?

I think they are both sub-dialects of "Ivornics" <g>

 

[Heather]

...

...just an ordinary computer user [...]

And boy does it show!

[snip 130+ lines of broken unreadable unnecessary quoting]

Sorry H, couldn't resist and no offence meant, but you really ought
to get that OE under control.

Whoops.....my bad!! But go easy on me.......I am trying to bottom post to
keep y'all happy and I forgot to check what was below where I answered.

Kissies....Heather

 

[Ant]

Whoops.....my bad!! But go easy on me.......I am trying to bottom
post to keep y'all happy and I forgot to check what was below where
I answered.

I'll spare you the top/bottom versus "contextualised inline
conversational method" (or whatever) argument!

Kissies....Heather

Sweet