F-secure: as trustworthy as they want to be

Story: Barclays banks on anti-virus dealTotal Replies: 8
Author Content
tuxchick2

May 28, 2006
12:44 PM EDT
Don't forget this is the company that gave the Sony rootkit a 30-day pass, and probably never would have gone public if Mark Russinovich hadn't broken the story.

Suuuuure they can be trusted. And suuuure windowze can be secured.
jdixon

May 28, 2006
3:15 PM EDT
> Don't forget this is the company that gave the Sony rootkit a 30-day pass, and probably never would have gone public if Mark Russinovich hadn't broken the story.

True. But have Symantec and McAfee ever admitted that they knew about the rootkit? F-Secure is probably a better choice than either of the market leaders.
Scott_Ruecker

May 28, 2006
10:44 PM EDT
What TC2 brings up is exactly why wanted to post this article.

As far as I know, there was not a single 'major' anti-virus company that caught the Sony root-kit. Not one. If I am wrong then please correct me but I think I am right about that.

Now why would anti-virus companies purposely not look for certain malicious software unless they all knew about it and were in on it as well?

It makes me sick.
Teron

May 30, 2006
6:03 AM EDT
If it wasn't Sony BMG distributing the thing instead of some garage-based hacker...
jdixon

May 30, 2006
6:10 AM EDT
> As far as I know, there was not a single 'major' anti-virus company that caught the Sony root-kit. Not one. If I am wrong then please correct me but I think I am right about that.

AFAIK, you are correct, and F-Secure is the only company that has even admitted to knowing about it.
tuxchick2

May 30, 2006
8:03 AM EDT
F-secure knew about it at least a month before it became public. They were in "talks" with Sony. They had no intention of going public, or flagging it as malware. But then Mark Russinovich at Sysinternals wrote about the rootkit in his blog, and suddenly F-Secure is the champeens of liberty and justice, and bragging about how great they are. Fie on all of them.

Now please someone tell me again why closed, proprietary code is good for us.
grouch

May 30, 2006
12:20 PM EDT
tuxchick2: >"Now please someone tell me again why closed, proprietary code is good for us."

Because it keeps alive the fantasy that anyone is just a scavenged program listing away from being a multi-billionaire.
jimf

May 30, 2006
12:53 PM EDT
> Because it keeps alive the fantasy that anyone is just a scavenged program listing away from being a multi-billionaire.

Ah... Now I get it.. Kinda like the lottery... or the stockmarket...
jdixon

May 30, 2006
7:14 PM EDT
> Fie on all of them.

Tuxchick, I'm not trying to say that F-Secure is anything to write home about. Merely that they're the best of a thoroughly bad lot. Sort of like choosing between the flu and smallpox.

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