Anti Virus?????

[bode]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030815/sff025_1.html

Press Release Source: avecho


avecho: Anti Virus Fails Us Yet Again
Friday August 15, 8:03 am ET


COLCHESTER, England, Aug 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The W32.Blaster.Worm (W32/Lovsan.worm) is causing havoc on The Internet and it is believed that it will launch a mass attack against Microsoft's websites later today.
Yet again a highly disruptive attack has hit The Internet: and just like the last big worm SQL slammer, the traditional anti virus companies have been powerless. The head of a leading industry anti virus vendor today stated on UK television that there is little the anti virus companies can do about such worms, and that users should keep their operating systems up to date.

Even if a user has up to date virus protection, their machines are still being probed, and this is causing many to be unstable. They may not technically be infected, but they are still being damaged. Some anti virus products will only warn after the event and users are still being infected, they are just being told about it.

The current situation begs many questions:
Why are the current anti virus vendors powerless to stop this?
Why are they so complacent and accepting that they are powerless to
stop such attacks?

Why are users spending so much money on anti virus products that just don't work?
It is easy to blame and attack Microsoft, but this is not rational and it does not help the poor computer user. All operating systems and software have vulnerabilities, Microsoft just happens to be the big player and are therefore an easy target. This does not excuse the anti virus companies from blame. They claim to be protecting users -- and they fundamentally are not.

There is a real answer to this. A UK company has had the technology to stop all such attacks forever and has been offering it for license for over one year. The anti virus companies such as Symantec and McAfee are just not interested. Perhaps this begs another question -- just why are they not interested in a technology that would stop all computer viruses forever.

Nick Scales - CEO of avecho who developed this unique anti virus technology says, "We have a technology that can prevent all attacks from computer viruses. It does not rely on any current anti virus techniques and really can stop this threat forever. It works in all areas of computing and in this case W32.Blaster would not even have been allowed to spread."

He continued, "Our GlassWall technology does not need updating. Once installed -- it just stops all malicious code attacks, including worms, virus, trojans and exploits forever. Our own networks are completely safe and GlassWall protects avecho from such attacks all the time."

Nick finished on a hopeful note, "With any luck there will be one good thing that comes from the high profile attack -- it will wake people up to the fate that current anti virus technology just does not work. The whole world has been complacent. I believe this is just the start of such high profile and damaging attacks. This time the anti virus vendors just can't pretend they are doing a good job."

Full details of avecho products and services can be found at www.avecho.net

[LTR12101B]

Banning Microsoft Networking ports from ever accessing the internet would be a start!

Seriously though, looked at the avecho site, and can't really figure how it's supposed to work.

Signatures are the "old" method of detection, and with good results on existing viruses (accuracy / false alarms etc.).
Heuristics are a second approach - analysing code for hostile intent - but subject to a tradeoff of sensitivity versus speed and false alarms.
Behaviour blocking is another approch similar to heuristics, detecting and stopping an attempt to do something potentially harmful.

[banzibaby]

Well i think that after this, user's will no longer be so suppotive of M$, which after all the most appalin security record goin & the AV companies

Most of them seel their products on the strenght that it protects U from viruses & trojans & worms, & yet most of them still got caught out with this 1, makes U wonder if all that subscription chgarges they make 4 the updates after so long are really worth it

Always rememebr M$ sayin that XP is the most stable & secure OS goin, what a load of trash, if that the case then why does it have so many patches 2 fix flaws.We are all being conned in 2 a false sense of security

BaNzI

[ipdave]

What most people fail to see is that if you are connected 24x7x365 to the net on a broadband connection, you have a choice. You either do what corporations who value their information do and install a firewall and use a cable/dsl router to block all ports but what you allow, or you pay the price. This includes Linux, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, etc. Only OpenBSD has been able to only have 1 verifiable hack. Linux has daily patches, MS has fairly frequent, and Solaris has many all the time. If you do not patch your OS (like July 17th for the current worm RPC vulnerability), you can blame others, but you are the one who let the hackers in.

Bottom line: keep up your patches and antivirus. Norton can schedule daily updates, and Windows can be set to keep updates as well. Turn off the capabibilities, and you are on your own. Common sense, people.