This is a really interesting thread, Skyfloating. Those google search results I simply had to try ... although look who's coming in at Number Three on the google list now, huh ??

The antivirus software conspiracy, page 1
Discusion about The antivirus software conspiracy in the AboveTopSecret.com website alternative topics discussion forum General Conspiracy Discussion.
www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread353619/pg1 - 75k - 22 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages

It wouldn't surprise me if a small number of clever antivirus techs spend their working days diligently serving their masters ... only to go home to develop their latest exploit using inside info on o/s vulnerability.

Create a virus, release it, supply a solution ... many viruses are identified & a solution created within only a few hours. The antivirus companies actually boast about how fast they are when it comes to providing new antivirus definitions. It's all a bit too fast for my liking, suspiciously fast. Nice fat bonuses for some, I reckon.

I think you have to question too the relationship between the commercial antivirus suppliers & Microsoft itself. Because it's their ropey operating systems which are keeping the antivirus companies in business. I don't think any operating system is 100% safe no matter how hard you try. But Windows is surely the least safe of the lot. By accident or design ?

I switched from Vista Ultimate to Ubuntu last year. Not because of viruses, just because Vista's a fat bloated piece of crap. And from Ubuntu I switched to Mandriva six weeks ago. Sure Linux is "safer". But for me the greatest thing is I switch it on, the o/s boots quickly and off a-surfing I go. There's no antivirus slowing me down, no new definitions to download, no warning messages. No nothing. Switch on and go. No hassle whatsoever.

Linux. It's bloody marvellous. And free. I'm totally enchanted.

Peepers has a thought to share. Windows is fun to smack down, hack and attack besides being an easy target for zombie purposes, its fun to claim fame for malicious activity and flaunt "see what I can do".

Now who does it, 10 year old kids learning to program using Vbscript, C++, DOS commands and packaging the devil in cute EXE. programs you install on your windows machine. They just wanna be malicious and have some fun showing each other what they know in the realm of hacking the PC. And they want your machine to spread there little seeds to all your friends. Imagine your a kid locked in your room all night and you create a global threat. Your an instant hero.

Than we have the professional underground virus writers who out grew the script kiddie era and enter into the big game. You knew em as crackers, warez, and bittorrents. This bunch produces commercial apps to gain entry into networks and systems to hack, steal information and spy.

The other ones in the game like to be called researchers who write exploits and try to evade AV programs. These are the guys anti virus companies stay closely in touch with. This bunch get virus code from sources that wtote them and sources that become infected and send the package to the researchers to examine and play with.

Did you know Apple has no registry like windows. Apple uses text files instead. The registry is a very mysterious place and much evil occurs there. Linux OS is almost apple code and they use a system to protect the software from attack by creating partitions the OS installs itself in. Windows can be formatted with a few lines of code and your life depends on the systems integrity until the format command is issued and its all gone.

Sky floating! Hahaha!you cant be serious! what kinda logic is that! who beneifts most from people dying! the undertakers is who, they must have a massive world wide conspiracy to kill people just cause they benefit from it! simple market forces at work here nothing sinister!

Originally posted by TheLoony
I gave up on antivirus software. For about six months the only protection I have had going is the MS firewall. It gets a little odd at times - once ATS was really freaky - but I clean out my cookies when that happens and it runs ok. I got tired of the programs not doing anything yet clogging up my computer.
Call me Loony, I don't care. I just want the computer to actually work and this is as good as it has gotten so far. I'm far from a computer expert so I may be taking a gamble. Heck, I'm sure if anyone wanted my info they already have it so does it really matter?

I'm with you and I'm an IT professional. It's not worth it to run a virus scanner, takes too many resources away from the system. My girlfriend's laptop runs McAfee (her choice) and it takes almost 10 minutes to boot because it has to search for updates all the time. I don't run one on mine and I've never had a problem. And I'm always going places I shouldn't and downloading torrents.

Just know what you're opening and where you're going on the internet. Not a bad idea to turn active scripting off in IE either. If there's any doubt about your identity, use Tor or anonymouse.org.

Originally posted by me262

I never said Mitnik wrote virus's, he is the only guy I whose name I know who went to jail for cybercrime and is now benefiting directly from his crimes.

Originally posted by me262
companies are guilty of hiring virus writers once released from jail. Remember Kevin Mitnik?

Seems to me that's what you insinuated in that statement. If not I'd not of quoted you. No big deal, I was just pointing out a flaw in your argument. I do understand the gist of it.

I don't like it because it leads one to believe you can commit these crimes, gain notoriety, do some time and get a payday.

If you think doing time in prison is a piece of cake and is somehow not enough deterrent, than I think your mistaken. When people complete their sentence imposed by the court they are free to do as they wish. There are many courts who feel the way you do and they often impose those stipulations as part of the sentence - in this case they did, but it expired.
He is now a benefit to society and if you do a little research instead of your kneejerk response you would know that he's a pretty smart guy.

He knew about hacking stuff that's not even in use anymore.

That's the biggest flaw in your arguments so far, if you had any real knowledge of hacking you would know that once you understand the basics ,hardware and software changes are trivial to a knowledgeable hacker. In fact he can probably perform tasks that would do circles around what modern day hackers can who's only knowledge is a thin veneer layer of todays systems.

That's like saying a guy who drove a stick shift on the floor, can't figure out how to use the new paddle shifters on the steering wheel of an automobile. He has the basic understanding of a manual transmission and how to make it shift, adding an auto/part time manual transmission just gives him more options and is a very easy transition to make. Essentially a improved interface, with the same underlying...

Once somebody has that level of knowledge it proves they have the aptitude to learn such skills. The only thing his record shows is he had a flaw in his character, but since he has grown and found he can make more working legally - he has done so. Isn't that what we want from all ex-convicts? I don't understand the jealousy of people like you. Except you feel that people smarter than you shouldn't be able to continue after making a mistake once in their lives, so you can elevate yourself somehow above them.


[edit on 7-5-2008 by verylowfrequency]

Another thought from the realm of Peepers. If you love your windows, get a copy of Norton Ghost like 2003 or if you have vista, get ghost 12 or 14.

Than, do a clean install of the OS, install all your clean virus free softwares and than ghost it to DVD. Peepers thinks that maybe you could be a little mentally traumatized from the infestation experience and can offer this suggestion, set the hard drive you just re-imaged with ghost to slave, than plug it into another clean PC with anti virus and run a sweep. Than your mind will be relieved and you can get on with your life.

Next time you infest your PC from visiting porn sites and DL warez, you can ghost image the old to new and by by infestations.

No matter what you read here today, use precautionary measures and get a firewall & anti virus. Right now I recommend ZoneAlarm suite 2008.

Unless you know how the internet works and the dark forces that live within, keep your PC and your vital information safe.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
This is actually a topic near-and-dear to my heart. If we can get some traction on the technically-inclined DIGG.com site, we may actually see some more valuable input on the subject.

Ok.
First and foremost I've... well lets say I have done work for a rather large *cough* software company.

Anywho, For 5 years now I've ran my computers naked.
No anti virus.
No software firewalls (Hardware based firewalls)
No special scanning software except for the ones that let me probe into my system.

And to date I have gotten 0 viruses.
General safe browsing is what you need. (No Script on FF)
(I do have a partition with windows and some anti virus software for the heck of it.
My active Windows install does not have anti virus software)

Oh, and your consumer level anti virus software is bloated. (I'll assume you already know this)
Corp level is a good deal smaller and less annoying with the fancy colorful graphics.



However in the end... yes it does seem odd how they have fixes out for a rather rare virus in the wild that may have only hit a few selective machine.

[edit on 7-5-2008 by Xabora]

However in the end... yes it does seem odd how they have fixes out for a rather rare virus in the wild that may have only hit a few selective machine.

That was exactly the case with Symantec. They had released information about a new virus, and what it did, and how to get rid of it, but no body had it. It was spotted by one of the websites that tracks viri propogation, and then other viri-related sites got involved, then Symantec pulled the info off their site, and denied it, even though people had copies of the webpage. The speculation was someone had accidently released the info before the virus... I remember it clearly, as at the time I was helping M$ set up what is now their PCsafety help line. At the time, it was set up to counteract the damage from the blaster worm (remember that joyous creation?). Within weeks there were multiple variants, and multiple issues. We had to keep a close eye on what was going about. It was right at that time the Symantec event occured, and I was watching it right from the beginning. So look back to about to about 1 to 2 weeks after blaster took off, and that will be the approx time of the Symantec incident.
BTW, Symantecs' corporate AV is very good. Very low footprint, updates quietly, resource friendly and runs well on Vista (not everything does..). But I'd still go with Avast AV, the free one. Way better than AVG.
On a side note, I've worked for multiple companies fixing PCs', and the most regular things that needed fixing were trojans (AV scanners were missing them), and fixing Norton. I will 3rd the claim that Norton is possibly one of the wordt pieces of software on the planet. McAfee isn't too far behind, IMHO. Kaspersky AV is also good (or was), Bit Defender is exellent, and NOD32 is excellent for servers.

Originally posted by Charity
This is a really interesting thread, Skyfloating. Those google search results I simply had to try ... although look who's coming in at Number Three on the google list now, huh ?? The antivirus software conspiracy...

Isnt it odd that there is hardly any info on this when using google?

Im the least knowledgeable on this and made the thread within a few minutes and still it appears as the only example of the theory on page 1 of google.

Why is this suspicious?

Because you can easily find loads of information on nonsense-conspiracy-theories. Loads.

Originally posted by cruzion

That was exactly the case with Symantec. They had released information about a new virus, and what it did, and how to get rid of it, but no body had it. It was spotted by one of the websites that tracks viri propogation, and then other viri-related sites got involved, then Symantec pulled the info off their site, and denied it, even though people had copies of the webpage. The speculation was someone had accidently released the info before the virus... I remember it clearly, as at the time I was helping M$ set up what is now their PCsafety help line.

Excellent info here. If we all wanna collaborate as detectives on this we need every little piece and pointer we can get.