North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Clueless anti-virus products/vendors (was Re: Sober)
> From [email protected] Sun Dec 4 22:34:54 2005 > Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 04:30:26 +0000 (GMT) > From: "Christopher L. Morrow" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Clueless anti-virus products/vendors (was Re: Sober) > To: "Steven M. Bellovin" <[email protected]> > Cc: "Church, Chuck" <[email protected]>, [email protected] > > > On Sun, 4 Dec 2005, Steven M. Bellovin wrote: > > > In message <[email protected]>, "Chur > > ch, Chuck" writes: > > > > > >What about all the viruses out there that don't forge addresses? > > >Sending a warning message makes sense for these. Unless someone has > > > > A-V companies are in the business of analyzing viruses. They should > > *know* how a particular virus behaves. > > This has also been said before, but... they are also in the business of > SELLING their product. It seems that the 'default' (note I don't either: > use av, nor scan emails for virii so I'm not sure what defaults to what... > just use something other than outlook and you can care less about it) is > possibly there for advertising effect more than anything else :( > > Hey, bob's company stopped this virus with $PRODUCT_12, why aren't we > using that product $VP_O_IT ?? "Because they 'very thoughtfully' fowarded the entire message, INCLUDING THE VIRUS ITSELF, to us. _Even_though_ the original message did not originate here. "Do you _really_ think we should start forwarding viruses to our customers, 'just because' their address was forged into a message sent us? Just how do you think our customers would respond to _that_?" There _is_ an art-form to backing management into an untennable corner, when they are bound and determined to do something 'wrong'. It's simply a matter of finding the "right" consequences of the action, to illustrate _why_ the proposed thing is 'wrong'. 'Revenues', and 'customer satisfaction' are almost _universal_ "hot buttons" that can frequently be used to advantage. |