I always find it quite amusing ( and ironic ) when security vendors eat their own dog food – and get bitten. Here are a few gems:
Earlier this year, Mcafee released a definition file which a Windows XP SP3 system file ( svchost.exe ) it thought was a threat resulting in thousands of machines not being able to boot, bringing corporate networks to their knees.
In February, a hacker gained access to the Kaspersky website as well as confidential customer information. The hacker had actually warned Kaspersky repeatedly but after no response, decided to go head with the publication of the information.
An erroneous update for the BitDefender antivirus software in March, saw an unknown number of 64-bit Windows PCs crashing or unable to be rebooted. The update falsely detected several Windows and BitDefender files as infected with the Trojan.FakeAlert.5 virus and quarantined them accordingly.
In 2008, Norton Antivirus Endpoint released a virus definition approximate that detected the file “microsexplorer.exe” on the Micros POS system as a virus. As a result, thousands of POS terminals were broken.
In 2009, a glitch in virus definition updates for the popular AVG Anti-Virus software from Grisoft mis-identified libraries required by Apple’s iTunes software as harmful – and disabled the software.
The reason I’m bringing up all of these is that often security vendors come across as holier-than-thow and having your best interests at heart, yet they end up breaking things for many people. It all seems like a Las Vegas kind-of-shabby attempt at trying to show their products as being the best, in the ever growing war of king of the security hill.
And the worst of these in my mind is Symantec. Not happy with bringing out a series of shocking anti-virus products for a number of years, they’ve now resorted to peddling their apparent security superiority with an online site called 2010NetThreats ( yes I know, another company trying to take advantage of the WC ).
Unfortunately, under almost every security tip published, there are comments from spammers with links for purses, T-shirts, metal parts, hotels, sport shoes, and other dubious sales offers. Distributed via comment spam, the links appear to all lead to more or less harmless online shops, but it would be easy for spammers to put in links leading to servers infected with malware.
There’s no registration required to comment, nor is there any CAPTCHA mechanisms in use. Considering that most pro CMSs have these security functions these days, this is careless at the very least. There is also no rel=”nofollow” protection for posted urls in comments.
And Symantec are punting themselves as a security company? Hmmm, yes, maybe in an alternate universe …
Then we have classic tips like the following on the site:
According to Symantec’s Con Mallon, while most South African cybercafes are legitimate businesses, experience has shown that they can be hotspots for cybercriminals, both physical and virtual.
Con has the inside track – SA cyber-criminals are vastly more proficient than others in the rest of the world, whose internet cafes are devoid of issues like this … Must have something to do with our crime issues!!!
Dan Bleaken, Senior Malware Analyst, Symantec Hosted Services: As we approach the semi-final stage of the 2010 World Cup, Symantec’s MessageLabs Intelligence has recorded a great variety of online threats relating to the event.
Sorry Dan, are you trying to tell us something new?
Everyone knows how frustrating a slow PC can be, particularly when you’re trying to stream a live match. Often, this can be a slow Internet connection or too much software clogging up your machine, but it can also be a sign that you have malware, such as viruses, worms or Trojans, sitting on your PC.
How can you fix it? A security software suite, such as Norton 360 version 3.0, goes through all of your PC’s processes to spot the problems.
Ok …
Unfortunately, this does highlight a greater issue relating to Windows PC and online security specifically. The average man in the street is continuously bombarded with advertising for security products and is not in a position to either choose effectively or test packages in a bid to find the ‘right’ one. The same side of the coin also exposes the high cost of operating Windows PCs in the modern internet world – cost in both time and software.
And finally, no matter how much security you have, zero-day threats can eat through all the firewalls, anti-malware and virus apps that you have, exposing your data and potentially misappropriating your system. A no-win situation any way you look at it.
So don’t automatically trust your security vendor just because they are in the security business. Keeping your wits about you may end up being a better security application than any provided by the so-called pros.
UPDATE: ah, very interesting to note that there are no longer any comments whatsoever on the entire site – I wonder where they have gone …