Community weekly poll: Do antivirus software developers create viruses?

Do antivirus software developers create viruses?

In reply to: Do antivirus software developers create viruses? by Marc Bennett 

Definitely.

Theirs' a billion dollar bussiness and they need to keep the goose which lays the golden egg alive. They may not do it themselvs, but they have thier Haliburton's to do it for them....most of them anyway. There may be those jerks who have a thrill of doing it themslevs, but they are a minority.
Have you noticed how quickly the anatiodote for a virus is found? and how much press each viruses gets, to scare users to stay with virus software?

Suspicious , yes...

In reply to: Do antivirus software developers create viruses? by Marc Bennett 

Since the dawn of viruses, there have been $$$ in the eyes of large anti-virus companies. Who can blame them? It's almost as sure as paying taxes, or buying burial plots for as long as there is binary data floating over airwaves, cables, etc...there will be viruses. In the midst of that, and I won't name one NOR a TON of companies, but the profits to be lost due to a slow down of viruses or none at all would be absolutely devistating to some. It's a known fact that many of the larger companies hire ex hackers, virus makers, script kitty attacking used-to-be's, to supposedly combat the new threats to our desktops.
One could argue that this is a wonderful idea, who better to combat the threats than those who used to create them? On the other hand, who's to say they don't make a great mark in the market? They have the knowledge and everything they need at their disposal to go for the gold and throw in a new virus or two, to keep the company dollar flow assured. When a fix is needed, how much faster can someone figure this out than the one who created it? This can sure make a company look to be a hero in the anti-virus industry.
This would somewhat be on the order of, for example,( Someone rescuing innocent lives from a house fire, being looked at as a hero, yet they themselves started the fire for this purpose.) Don't get me wrong, I am not saying all viruses are created by the companies themselves but it is certainly not far from their reach to do so, if not in their laps. Without any proof that this is going on, all we can do is speculate. Perhaps the starting intention was good, to stop viruses from attacking our computers, which now seems to be more confusing than the virus codes themselves. Some softwares have become so bloated and system integrated, they have become almost worse than the viruses we try to protect against. As with making laws against any little thing that disturbs us, and many other things in life, we seek to find and trust in this protection until the protection is the enemy itself.
Paul K

To a degree yes .. but not the primary companies.

In reply to: Do antivirus software developers create viruses? by Marc Bennett 

If you're talking about the online scan merchants that seem to mysteriously find a notable number of infections and then demand you "buy" the software to remover the infections. Yes absolutely that is a scam and the sad thing is way too many novices try those sites out, get a shock and think oh my god I need to get this software. They've paid for rubbish.

I think it's a huge stretch to suggest the main stream primary AV apps like McAfee, Trend Micro, Symantec and others are either individually or collectively conspiring to create viruses and then issuing the means to disinfect a system for the purpose of self preservation or money.

What do you base that on? A time frame isn't proof. None of what any of the conspiracy theorists have said constitute proof. In fact all of the theories if presented in a court of law as evidence would be thrown out and treated with the contempt they deserve.

I happen to agree with one comment that pointed out one very important aspect of this debate that I think all of the conspiracy theorists have conveniently overlooked and that is peoples reputations are being damaged with these allegations and I think personally that's pretty gutless. Easy to throw mud but how would you feel if it was being thrown at you and you weren't guilty as claimed?

Try a bit of consideration before you trash the integrity and reputations of people you don't know based on so called proof which at best is pretty lame.

One more post

In reply to: Do antivirus software developers create viruses? by Marc Bennett 

I found myself having to reply again. I read many of the posts and said to myself, "people are the same even in a matter of anti-virus, as they are with the government."
Why does it have to be one of two ways? Either it IS a conspiracy, or it's NOT? Those who think it is are paranoid and crazy, those who do not are close minded and stupid. This is the same problem people have with every day life, government, Microsoft etc...In my opinion, to think to the extreme either way is what weakens us to be close minded to either side. This may be a simple anti-virus issue but it shows how we react either way. I feel it's better not to think I am right about either, since if I am that sure about any issue without absolute proof, then I feel I would be a blinded fool. It's not so much my opinion as it is my common sense to say, I will simply keep an open mind, and an open eye and I won't be clouded by press or other's opinons or cut downs. This way I am not pressing my strict opinion upon others and making accusations of which I can't prove either way.
I will admit that people in general (not all) but many seem to side with the higher powers, be it large companies, etc..who are wealthy and therefore can do no wrong. I don't try to go overboard with this in the discussion of anti virus but it is the same principal. These days we look at people for what they have, not who they are, even more than previous years. So, people ask, why would such a large company who has so much money, do such a thing? Greed. This is what drives us all to want all benefits of life, isn't it? Once you have it all , the only thing left is greed and power, this is not an opinion, but proven truth time and time again.
On the other hand, others shouldn't assume wealthy companies are crooked just because. There are companies big and small that are and aren't crooked. Microsoft has more than raised suspicion and has out right tried to corner the market, pushing and forcing smaller companies out. This doesn't mean all would do this. But to say for sure without knowing is as blind as saying for sure this won't happen.
Either extreme is any good for us personally or as a people. We are so damn stuck about ourselves, what we want, that i'm right, that they are wrong, that we cannot bring out our own common sense to simply say, well, this could happen, this could be, not saying it will, may not. We spend so much time arguing that if there is any real corruption going on, we sure as heck wouldn't know it as it would slip right by.

Paul

(NT) I did lol...

All of you conspiracy theorists .... read this.

Well said. Absurd is sooooo correct.

Do they create their own viruses? I doubt it

In reply to: Do antivirus software developers create viruses? by Marc Bennett 

They are probably over worked now with new viruses every day.
Employers don't hire more labor than they need. They usually keep the bare minimum workforce and use whips on them as they did me before I retired. Programmers and good machine language gurus are too busy now to write such trash.