Most/all computer viruses caused by anti-virus companies?

I have an idea that most computer owners have probably had at some point, and thats where most to all of the viruses are created from within big firms such as Norton, Avast, and other big names in the virus business. It seems logical, it's the perfect business really, keep the need out there keep the money rolling in. All it takes is a few 'employees' with infected memory sticks to go around libraries, cyber cafe's and other places where there is commercial internet access & voila. The viruses are untracable and it could have been anyone.

Anyone up for this one?

[edit on 14-2-2009 by The Chez]

Its probably quite true. Perhaps at least 65% could be from AV companies. Its not an impossibility.

as the saying goes, in order to provide a cure you must also provide the disease

A bit like psychiatry

But yeah, it's been bugging me for ages, being a computer geek I've seen my fair share of viral nuisances, and most of it being so damn basic makes it look even more like the lazy trigger happy workings of a corporation rather than a 'geek in a bedroom'.

[edit on 14-2-2009 by The Chez]

I think your probably right, it makes no sense for some geeks to make all of the viruses as they have nothing to gain. Sure their may be some but the most likely people to gain from it are the anti virus software manufacturers themselves.

Then there was that case a few years back where Microsoft actualy employed a worm creator! I mean come on, Microsoft would never do that, but they would create a story to make themselves LOOK good!

I mean what would someone gain by creating a worm that locks a PC into a constant cycle of reboots? To an AV company thats BIG money.

True!
Everyone should create an own protection/firewall without purchasing from antivirus software companies.
See how long they 're gonna exist.

I never have viruses and never bought any anti-vir protection.

Time to get rid of some weed....

good thread

this has been discussed at ats on and off agian, but i always enjoy a good subject coming back up and hearing new opinions on the matter

i agree with your sentiments here, i think i starred every post till mine

i think it is a very distinct possibility

It's possible, although there is no shortage of tech savvy smartasses that are not wise enough to realise damaging other people's data achieves nothing. This is one conspiracy where, if people knew the truth, they would probably be dissapointed at the low conspiracy levels.

No, the real cause of the virus plague is microsoft's sloppy code. Macintoshes and other unix variants, including linux, have far less viruses, to the point we can say they are virus free, as the few functional viruses known about are not even found in the wild, and you can run the system safely without a virus scanner. For some reason, probably half business and half technical dificulties related to backwards compatability in x386 based OS', Microsoft has chosen to keep it's users operating in a security nightmare, and as such we have to stay alert to the possibility of computer disease. However, microsoft is also an open hardware system and has the widest userbase as well as the most available software, so there is some sort of payoff for the inconvenience. I'm writing this post on a MS conputer.

My 5c

One called "Antivirus 2009" needs a good lawsuit for there actions.
security.tennessee.edu...
www.2-spyware.com...

Not only is it there virus that they try to use to get you to buy there anti virus product.
But its a almost worthless anti virus program they sell.

Why would a company like AVG spread a virus when they give away a very good free anti virus program.

If everyone would put AVG free on there computers we would have very few viruses out there.
free.avg.com...

it has been my theory for a very long time that viruses are made by 3 groups..

33%mac (and mac users).. obvious reasons.. lol
33%.paid. anti-virus companies.. (not the free ones.. what do they gain)
and 33% bored hackers who want to make their hacker names known to the hacker communities.

8-D

Originally posted by radioactive_liquid
as the saying goes, in order to provide a cure you must also provide the disease

right.. sounds like a sound business model..

or tell young girls they're worthless and fat unless they're skinny within ads for things that make them think they will become skinny...

or invent a virus then sell the drug..

or start a war then sell arms to both sides.. etc..etc...etc..


they won't get caught because people that suspect such actions are "woo woo"...

-

I am in the network security business and thats not just a conspiracy its a known fact in the computer world. It use to be more common in the 90's

Why would they need to do that?

Don't you think there are people out there who would like to steal your credit card information? Don't you think they would love to put a Trojan on your computer, install some key loggers, and sit back and watch as you access all of your financial information?

Don't you think there are jerks out there that get a kick out of ruining other's computers? What about shutting down business operations for a while?

People are jerks, and because of that, anti-virus companies' futures are secure.

[edit on 2/15/2009 by Irish M1ck]

Originally posted by Irish M1ck
Why would they need to do that?

Don't you think there are people out there who would like to steal your credit card information? Don't you think they would love to put a Trojan on your computer, install some key loggers, and sit back and watch as you access all of your financial information?

Don't you think there are jerks out there that get a kick out of ruining other's computers? What about shutting down business operations for a while?

People are jerks, and because of that, anti-virus companies' futures are secure.

[edit on 2/15/2009 by Irish M1ck]

Yeah, I've known of cases where people are hired to write a virus or trojans so that a business can steal other business data or damage the rival's network, etc.

In fact, that was a source of income for lots of crackers years ago, some of them even got to earn lots of money this way.

Also, lots of spammers will hire someone to write them a virus so that they can make user's machine into spam zombies, hijacking your network connection so that they can use it to send spam from your IP without you even realizing that.

So yeah, there is plenty of money there, and market too.

Kai

Well I own several IT companies all throughout NA and I can say that that most really harmfull viruses come from geeks in they're basements with nothing better to do.

The annoying viruses, spywares, rootkits and anything else that is just that, an annoyance usuall come from the software developpers of major companies like Microsoft or Norton.

The reason for this? Well I have a special department at my headquarters that does nothing but write little viruses to test in the system. You see we specialize in Network Engineering and well you need to test you're stuff before you get it out to the market. They produce a small virus/trojan whatever it is I need and we test it, and then develop an Anti-Virus code to go along with it, which we patch into our program to prevent any outside sources that are similar in code from entering.

Now most other companies who deal with operating systems do the same thing, testers they call them. Your whole job as a tester comprises of trying to break the system, any way you can, and then documenting how you did so.

So with this in mind, yes, most viruses do come from major companies, they're release is most likely un-intentional but it is beneficial to they're cause. The more viruses there are, the more of a market that creates for companies writing code to prevent these things from affecting us.

~Keeper

I was part of a wave of hackers that came out in the early-mid 90's. Members of my group went on to design AOHell, which was used for a wide variety of things ranging from kicking users out of rooms, to following them into private rooms, to billing and payment details.

None of us were over 14 when we all met up on Prodigy, and a good many of us went on to get arrested for computer fraud, wire fraud, and other various hacking crimes.

I guess my point is that there were always more than enough young, out-of-place teenagers (boys and girls) who had a healthy curiosity and a supreme intellect. These things usually mean trouble if you mix in a parent who isn't around, which is normally the case these days.

I don't think internet security companies need to create viruses. There are more than enough criminals working to create the problems, all these companies need to do is focus on the solutions.

Keep in mind that internet security companies and software packages only protect against known issues. Hackers and internet criminals will always be at least one step ahead of the security sector. I knew this as an out-of-place pseudo hacker in the mid 90's and I know this today as an Internet Security specialist.

Originally posted by thegreatobserver


I never have viruses and never bought any anti-vir protection.

a deaf + blind man walks across train tracks and says no train is coming... how would he know if he cant see or hear the train?

you claim to have never had a virus, but how would you know when in the next breath you admit youve never had antivirus protection?

It's the IT form of cigarettes! A good thought that. Getting rid of viri isn't good for business.