Why Popular Anti-Virus Apps 'Don't Work'

Avantare writes "ZDNet Australia has a writeup about why AV apps don't work. The reason given is because the malware authors are writing code that will get around the signatures of the application by testing their code on the most popular anti-virus software before release." This comes as a follow up to another article detailing the sad state of anti-virus software currently on the market.

Re:Just follow a few basic steps...

[Anonymous Coward]

I clicked on your religous link, and my pc reboots ev

Dedication to QA

[Distinguished Hero]

testing their code on the most popular anti-virus software before release.

Now that's good quality assurance. Many programmers have much to learn in this regard, though I suppose virus writers are motivated by doing what they love and not having to put up with PHBs, which are two amenities a lot of programmers have to do without. :)

Re:I don't use Norton..

[Anonymous Coward]

Additionally, I don't open e-mails that promise a glimpse into Paris Hilton's private area.

Hm. You can call that area on Paris Hilton a lot of things, but "private" isn't one them.

Re:you are not supposed to cure the symptoms

[antifoidulus]

So..... the disease is slashdot then?

Re:Kaspersky?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its probably a trojan.

And the article is social engineering to get you to install it.

Re:No S**t

[Schemat1c]

Maybe you would have gotten more viruses if you hadn't been using it. You'll never know since you had it running the whole time.

That's the same logic that keeps me from throwing away my anti-vampire rock. Ever since I've had it I haven't seen a single vampire so that proves it must work.

Re:Just follow a few basic steps...

[Ctrl-Z]

Also: Don't connect your computer to the Internet.

Re:Eye-Candy

[sco08y]

That's why: there is too much eye-candy!

That reminds me of when I wanted to bring my iBook into a library to use their network connection.

The woman said, "you have to have AV software installed to use our network connection."

So I fired up XCode, put together a dialog with a big SCAN button and a progress bar that slowly filled up.

It still said "MyApplication" in the menu bar...

Re:No S**t

[SnowZero]

If your house burns down you physically have to buy / restore the current one with hard earned cash.

Are you saying you don't make regular backups of your house? Man, you are really tempting fate.