[RTC List] 60 Minutes story: The Internet is Infected

Mon Mar 30 19:58:55 PDT 2009

One of the great ironies that seems to escape most Internet users is the
fact that (depending upon their ISP), most are already paying for virus
protection, whether they have it on their computers or not. Most ISPs,
government and large business customers already subscribe to antivirus
filtering services for their mail servers. The vast, vast majority of
viruses that make their way across the Internet do so via e-mail. The
vast, vast majority of viruses are also blocked each day at the mail
server level, rather than via software on home computers. The cost is
generally factored into ISP subscription fees.

I would guess that most of the profits from the majority of antivirus
vendors (excluding Symantec) actually comes from selling subscriptions en
masse to government and businesses using them for mail server filtering,
rather than from retail sales. You are likely paying for antivirus
research already, whether you know it or not. Check with your ISP to see
what brand of antivirus filtering software they are already using (some
actually use multiple antivirus products). If you want to go the extra
mile, use a desktop antivirus product that is NOT made by the same
company. Having your e-mail scanned by the same company's virus
definitions TWICE is not going to help much. If you use antivirus software
from a different company than your ISP, you are much more likely to stop
any virus that happens to get through your ISP's antivirus filters.

FYI, we use a free antivirus scanner called CLAM AV on our own mail
servers. We have not had a single virus make it through our filters in 7+
years. We have trapped hundreds of them a day at the server level though.
IMHO, this 60 Minutes piece was just hype to get ratings. Network "news"
shows are really more entertainment than news these days.

-- 
William Van Hefner
President - Vantek Communications, Inc.
e-mail: editor at humboldtonline.com

On Mon, March 30, 2009 7:17 pm, Pat Bitton wrote:
> Well, the a-v companies have to pay for the research from somewhere!
>
>
> _____
>
>
> From: robert beckerdite [mailto:robert at beckerdite.com]
> Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 6:51 PM
> To: dthewlis at dcta.com
> Cc: dwightw at mac.com; pat_bitton at eurestopartners.com; list at redwoodtech.org
> Subject: RE: [RTC List] 60 Minutes story: The Internet is Infected
>
>
>
> Free AV is awesome for home users just remember that most free Antivirus
> is provided by companies to earn commercial business sales.  The line from
>  Avast! is:
>
>
> "avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed
> exclusively for home users, non-commercial users. Both conditions should
> be met!"
>
> (My Parallels and Fusion users are all using them in business)
>
>
> Robert Beckerdite
> Senior Engineer and Owner
> Beckerdite Consulting
> (707) 703-1528
> www.beckerdite.com <http://www.beckerdite.com/>
>
>
>
>
>
> _____
>
>
> Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:18:08 -0700
> From: dave at dcta.com
> To: robert at beckerdite.com
> CC: dwightw at mac.com; pat_bitton at eurestopartners.com; list at redwoodtech.org
> Subject: Re: [RTC List] 60 Minutes story: The Internet is Infected
>
>
> Robert, Avast! offers a free AV client for Windows, which might run fine
> in a virtual machine.  However if there is synergy between the Mac and AV
> instances it would be an awfully good idea to go for a combined
> subscription.  I don't know if Avast! has a free Mac client.
>
> robert beckerdite wrote:
>
> How many mac users are virtualizing XP and not running an antivirus or
> installing patches on the VM XP install?  I found a good price for Avast
> Antivirus both a PC and Mac license for 49.95 which might be a good price
>  for all the Fusion and Bootcamp users.
>
> Robert Beckerdite
> Senior Engineer and Owner
> Beckerdite Consulting
> (707) 703-1528
> www.beckerdite.com <http://www.beckerdite.com/>
>
>
>
>
>> From: dwightw at mac.com
>> To: pat_bitton at eurestopartners.com
>> Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:30:02 -0600
>> CC: list at redwoodtech.org
>> Subject: Re: [RTC List] 60 Minutes story: The Internet is Infected
>>
>>
>> Of course the REAL trick is to get people to turn on their Anti-Virus,
>> Anti-Spam, Firewall Protections, and then keep them up to date on a
>> regular basis. It is amazing how many people I come across who either
>> have them turned off "because they are such a hassle and always coming
>> on when we log on", or they think that once they are installed updates
>> never have to be run. I had someone's Mac last week that was causing
>> file corruption because of ancient anti-virus software that had never
>> been upgraded or updated, but was still on.
>>
>> - Dwight
>>
>>
>> On 30 Mar 2009, at 6:14 PM, Pat Bitton wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Despite all 60 Minutes' (and Symantec's) attempts at the contrary,
>>> the sky is not going to fall on April 1st. Anyone whose system is
>>> patched up to date and who has updated anti-virus protection from a
>>> reputable vendor (with
>>> heuristic detection for preference, as this will block any new
>>> iterations of Conficker that appear) is unlikely to experience any
>>> ill-effects.
>>>
>>> Interestingly, the number of new virus examples appearing in labs
>>> every day was actually under-estimated by Symantec. AVG (full
>>> disclosure: I am a
>>> contractor for them) has between 20,000 and 30,000 new samples arriving
>>> in their labs every day. BUT most of these never make it into the
>>> wild, so all that updating really doesn't improve protection to any
>>> significant degree.
>>>
>>> The bad guys on the Internet are mostly in Russia and China. This
>>> has been the case for several years. Anyone interested in the backstory
>>>  should check out the archives at Roger Thompson's blog,
>>> http://tcsltesting.blogspot.com/index.html.
>>>
>>>
>>> Pat Bitton
>>> Partner, Euresto Partners Inc
>>> Sales & Marketing Strategies for Technology Startups
>>> +1 707 268 8968/+1 408 464 0829 cell
>>> MSN IM: pbitton at hotmail.com
>>> Skype: pat.bitton
>>> Follow me on Twitter @PatBitton
>>> www.eurestopartners.com <http://www.eurestopartners.com/>
>>>
>>> Looking for security advice? Check out
>>> www.theinternetprotectors.com <http://www.theinternetprotectors.com/>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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> --
> Dave Thewlis, DCTA Inc.
> +1 707 840 9391 (voice) . +1 707 498 2238 (mobile)
> http://www.dcta.com <http://www.dcta.com/>  . dthewlis at dcta.com
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