Anti Virus software

Anybody think that the people who write the code for the Anti-virus software are often the ones creating some of the viruses in the first place? No viruses, no need for antivirus software - and no money for developers. They do seem to know about the new viruses and solve the problems very, very quickly, don't they?

Nicely thought, but we could ask in the same manner if it's really cops who do all the crimes and do firefighters spend their spare time by playing carelessly with gas & matches...

Are you saying it doesn't happen? Firemen Police

...and are the noobs and peelos and troublemakers and flamers and kinds of that only alter accounts of the moderators so they can feel themselves useful...

Huh!?!?!

Woah. Sorry, I had no idea you don't speak BBS Jargon...

heehhe Well Rick I do not hink you fall into any of the listed atagories Finn is referring to . He if I understand it is referring to kids that have too much spare time and hack in to the server of the forums and alter the Mod accounts or post or such and or the ones that only post on a forum to inflame the group and really have no dutiful or good purpose and dislike the forum secertly.

But back to the AV soft...

The answer is reportly yes. now I am not accusing directly that this occured but it is the longest upheld belief and may have grown in preportion to the time the story has existed. But SUPPOSEDLY Mc Afee was a prof at Berleky U when Computers were becomming popular and they had networked a group of them together in their infancy and he devised a therory that their was the possibility of a code being written that once introduced to ahost machine could not only spread but replicate its self to all the other linked machinces and he choose to term this malicious code a Virus.

Well his therory was not only not accepted but he was laughed at and scowled so much by all that he resigned under the scrutiny and laughter only to be called in a couple weeks later to try to help remove the very type of infectious code that he had warned them about. Well so the story goes you have the original AV program then so named after its founder.

I studied intently the Windows OS for some years and became quite an expert in removal of malicious code from computers myself. I donated 8 years of my life to learning and teaching computer concepts and I dealt primarily in malicious code removal and also not only learning to remove existing startups and malicious code but even developing systems that had been previously unknown to actully prevent future occurnces of this type of behavior by others. While I have never shared the code I developed, I still have it tucked away and was going to use it for a good purpose had I remained in the repair side of computers and started charging for my work but I opted out of it as technology has made similar applications I was developing availabe in the Xp OS and then also I simply lost interest as I could not devote the time required to developing such in depth programs. Finally a company went a step further and actually developed a program like I was working on that will supply a basic os and internet connection at the bios level and also stores a complete back up there so even if you are wiped out in the worst type of software crash then you can still get to the restore area and even get a basic internet connection for assistance and getting back up. I have the beta program of ths software but they sold out to Phonix and I never seen it further developed then. I never understood why but assumed it was bought out to stiffle it from going further.

Never let it be said that corporate conspiricies do not occur in AV and otther ends of the spectrum as well.

I know I tell grand stories and probably thought to be a liar quite a bit. but I will share some of this one of my adventures. I discovered a weakness in the main AOL super structure and to tryto shorten a longer story , I have not ever had AOL but was an avid ICQ freak for many years and had my share of falling outs with icq after Aol consumed them. I used to alpha and beta test for them prior to them changing th infra structure and they were generally not fair and finally left me out to dry Sooo I reporte the system weakness to my old admin pal and I had learned of it only from some hacker kids that worshiped my previos positions with icq and I diod not have the fix . I told him if he paid up the merchandise he had promised me some 6 years back that I would get him the fix. Well he was convinced he could find the hole and repair it and he was not abou to play ball and then 2 days later he contacted me again and by then I had found the cure and he promised to pay up and I gave it to him. Low and behold he wanted to welch on the deal again. This time I wrote up an article of exposure that I sent to him and ask for his approval or denial of the facts as i had illistrated them to him and told him I would release them to th API wire the following ay had he not came through. Well I was deligheted that he paid up for sure and was extra delighted that I actually saved or potentially saved the entire aol network as that group of hacker kids had full server level access to every Aol server and back up server in Reston,Dulles and Tele Aviv. They could have wiped Aol out in a heart beat. needless to saywe would have all or so many suffered a great loss and it potentially sould have cost Aol millions maybe 100's of Millions. Now I am sure you will never hear this story from Aol and am veysure they would deny they were so vunerable.

I doubt that main stream corporate AV sellers actually do any conspritorial scheming now adays but I have wasted enough space here to start deleniating my reasons for it all but they could potentially do so. They really do not have to as the script kiddies and hacker kids keep them in business as is. The oter reason they do not, in my opinion is the tracability of evidence and they would get caught at it and they cannot risk the cushy billions they are making now to increase it by a few million more.

They really do not need to any way as the Russian kids that are bored can develop plenty for them to combat as is.

About your idealogy of why they find th solutions so quicklly. They have extremly advanced programmers that understand the very core level os commands almost down to the + and - memory strem of the processor level now and programs to map ever sinle move or key stroke or bit of data and analyze it so they can back track the memory streams to a file that is producing them and once the file of change of sixe date behavior or any thing of a file is noted then they can quickly deduce the problem and send out a fix with in a day.

That said while it was alwas possible for them in recent times it was not alwas so . I still use the old varient of AVP the russian program that Kaspoesy made and will aslong s it is still supported with daily updates. Nortons is King in USA and yet just 3 or so years back they done an update only ever 6 weeks or so and nearly lost all credibility to AVP back then and finally caught on. to current trends and demands. I think they really only started the daily updates after taht first big mail worm cannot recall its name now but the love bug one that set off the fire works when it went off . Since then mail worms are the biggest thing and have cost coporate WORLD untold billions. I just cannot imagine the isk of any AV company supporting activity that would reik such havoc and cost so much. But again and finally it is possible.

The average user has no clue about computer security and most are vunerable to such things. You know I would like to continue more and take the oter side for a minute. i do not concern much about comp security as I fell I am an expert in preventing intrusions on my personal workstation, but on the oter hand I know any one that is smart enough to intrude on me personally is also smart enough to rob a bank so mylogic is why would such an advanced person attemp to give me a buffer over run or under run when the time devoted to such an advanced intrusion could easily allow them to enter a banks computer and make them plenty.

Same principle applies to Nortons and the oter big av companies. they make thieirs so easily now they cannot risk doing any illegal stuff theirselves. They could but they won't is my stance. Very final for now. buit an issue of such interest to me personally and I hope to others.

Its an interesting theory, however, I don't think it holds much water. For instance, both the major AV companies, McAfee & Norton [Symantec], have other software that they offer, so they don't have a particular reason to keep virus' around.

Think of it this way, why do doctors hope to cure the world of diseases and all other ills? I mean their primary function is to help people recover from maladies and if there aren't any more, then they are [almost] out of a job.

Aaron H said:

Think of it this way, why do doctors hope to cure the world of diseases and all other ills? I mean their primary function is to help people recover from maladies and if there aren't any more, then they are [almost] out of a job.

Click to expand...

Are you sure they do? As I understand it, a lot of them work on the symptom, and save fixing the problem for later time and money.
But I guess that's another subject. Unless it's topic progression.

You could see it that way as far at the avg. family doctor goes. I was thinking more along the lines of research doctors.

Tennessee R said:

Are you sure they do? As I understand it, a lot of them work on the symptom, and save fixing the problem for later time and money.
But I guess that's another subject. Unless it's topic progression.

Click to expand...

I take the opinion thta family doctors ( well make that family doctors past) were the true heales and the research guys are dominated andcompletly controled by corporate comglomeraters that has a motive of profit or well being.

I guess Rick should decide if this si progression or should be moved to an other area as I am not sure where he wants this to go.

Ipersonally ( most thanking th lord here I am sure) cannot further digress on the software end of it as I encapulated my thoughts in the first encylopidea I posted on the subject but I certainly can tell you that I do not believe there is 1 in 1000 doctors at least in USA that is practicing mdeicine due to any real concern about humanity other than thier own humanity and thier own wallet.