Barclays banks on anti-virus deal

Since I don't use windoze, I don't really have any need for any of this antivirus stuff - could I have the cost deducted from my fees in lieu of the unneccessary (and indeed incompatible) software?

Now third party companies have to bail Windows users out.

If Barclays had threatened to get all of their customers a copy of LInux if Microsoft didn't sort Windows out it would be some story and might even achieve results.

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.

> 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.

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.

If it wasn't Sony BMG distributing the thing instead of some garage-based hacker...

> 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.

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.

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.

> 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...

> 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.