[X-Newbies] Anti-Virus

[Vincent Cayenne]

At 9:30 AM +1000 6/15/05, Tony Johansen wrote:
>I, now completely Anti-Virus free, am thinking that if I have an A-V
>program, that I will be better off in the event of a newly released virus
>due to the (hopefully) rapid release of a security patch by the service I
>subscribe to. Is there any real logic in that thinking?

None whatsoever :-)

In the lengthy absence of a virus for OS X, it would perhaps be more 
logical to think that whomsoever does create one will take into 
account the current means of "detection". And the anti-virus 
companies certainly aren't getting any practice working on 
non-existent threats in the wild, are they? Similarly to the concerns 
about the biological equivalents, we may have more to fear from what 
may "escape" from the labs of their "researchers".

>
>Also during my year of Norton A-V it quarantined about a dozen suspicious
>files. Which I deleted. Are you suggesting that this apparently successful
>work by the program was little more than window dressing?

Indubitably. The only other interpretation would be that it 
quarantined actual threats. Which don't exist so...

I'd go so far as to say that I've seen far more harmful effect from 
Symantec product than would have been occasioned by the non-existent 
threats from which they purport to defend. I'd describe the presence 
of NAV, SAV et al on Mac OS X machines as an excellent example of 
successful use of social engineering to introduce useless, 
often-debilitating elements to the platform. I've also never seen a 
single instance of one of those products isolating something which 
would have otherwise brought harm to the Mac. I have seen email and 
filesystems and productivity decimated by the effects of these 
"protectors" though.

Just once I'd like to see a Mac AV purveyor say it straight: "our 
product is not yet necessary, useful or effective as an antivirus 
device on your platform of choice. So we'll instead sell a rapid 
alert service that'll undertake to be quick to let you know whenever 
you do need something that we sell..." I might well subscribe just 
out of appreciation for their integrity.

>  That those files
>would have done no harm anyway because they were likely Windows based items?

Yes. Or harmless.
-- 
'tis as said. [Reality is defined by being described]