I’ve finally updated the “software” section for the month of September. This time around, and in lieu of the times, yet another anti-virus program is reviewed and suggested. Check it out.
The virus business surely is a very strange animal. One that hasn’t changed much in many, many years. Oh, the viruses have changed sure but, the way we deal with them hasn’t changed all that much. Meanwhile, Microsoft has avoided having to deal with viruses at the operating system level, they just won’t do it. Today, we still have to give up precious system resources or, else be vulnerable to any virus in the wild and suffer the consequences of being unprotected. The whole “Virus Writer / Anti-Virus Software Writer / Microsoft” triad just smacks of conspiracy and almost always has.
Remember the DOS and Windows 3.1 days? Not really? Well, let me tell you that viruses back then were not simple script driven, Visual Basic dependant exploits. Viruses back in those days were elegant, artful, and took real work to program. They were definitely real works of evil genius. Not the silly and mostly harmless pranks that we see today. In those days, viruses would cause real system damage and in most cases, they were able to completely render a machine inoperable. In the least case, they would cause you to loose files and data. In the worst case, they would actually infect the system BIOS causing yo major headaches. In a very few viruses out there, they could actually render a computer into a hunk of worthless metal, forever. They did all of this with just a few lines of assembly code.
Today, big corporations spend millions and millions of dollars on anti-virus software for their servers, their e-mail servers, their corporate firewall servers, their application servers, their database server, their web server… (pant) and of course, their end-user desktops. This is in the day where most viruses are mere practical jokes that exploit some Microsoft weakness or other. This is in a day where those weaknesses are known to exist yet, companies and IT departments still insist upon using those vulnerable and exploited products, no matter what the cost. Back when viruses were quite dangerous and harmful, I can remember literally pleading with the management of a fortune 100 company to spend just a few dollars for just one license and being told “no” on numerous occasions. So, we scanned the systems by hand and eventually with automated scripts, using software we begged borrowed or, had stolen… And we did it while walking uphill! In the snow! Both ways! And, we were glad to do it!
Well, one thing is for certain, the virus writers will continue to chip away at the Microsoft products and the anti-virus writers will continue to vigilantly release updates, fixes and remediations. That equation hasn’t changed in nearly 20 years. Yet there is more, the equation is begining to change ever so slightly.
That slight change brings forward the real question: Where is the line drawn between viruses and spyware? In my humble opinion, that line is already blurred beyond recognition. In fact, the new spyware is often far more dangerous and damaging to your system than most of the prank, nusciance viruses that are floating around. Some of them are harmless data gatherers, others are destructive programs that make you and your computer behave in ways you don’t want. They send information about yourself and your family, that you don’t want to, to god-knows-where. These things are actually viruses for profit. They are written, paid for and endorsed by big business. Specifically to give them more demograhpic information that you would yourself, on your own. All with the goal of profiting, which is what business do. I would not expect to see a trend that deals with spyware in anti-virus programs. Nor would I expect the way that Microsoft deals with spyware to change since Windows XP is essentially a spyware server for Microsoft itself.
This problem with spyware today, is just like the early days of viruses infections was. Once again, it is completely up to you to protect yourself. In fact, beware of the virus