MetaFilter posts tagged with antivirus

It's all Greek to Me

scalefree — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:30:49 -0800

In 1984 computer pioneer Ken Thompson wrote one of the seminal works of computer security, Reflections on Trusting Trust [PDF]. In it he postulated putting a trojan horse inside a compiler as a means of infecting software compiled by it. 25 years later somebody has finally done just that. Researchers at anti-virus house Sophos have discovered a virus that places a backdoor into applications compiled with the Delphi language. They've identified at least 3000 separate Delphi applications that have had this backdoor compiled into them so far, including banking programs and programs used for cellphone programming.

nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'

jim in austin — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:45:14 -0800

Jumping on the Star Trek bandwagon with both feet and wearing a tiara, Sophos has just released their Klingon Anti-Virus product. It is available in either native Klingon or English for wimps.

This software has compatibility issues with the version of msxml4.dll used by cloaking devices on Romulan-modded D7-class battle cruisers. Installing this software on such vessels is punishable by ordeal of Ginst'a'Ed.

Happy 20th birthday, PC virus

Plutor — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:03:44 -0800

On January 19, 1986, the first PC virus — Brain — was detected. It was virtually harmless, and the Pakistani creators claim that it was only intended to protect their copyrights. (They did, after all, include their own address and phone number in the machine code.) In the past 20 years, though, both creating viruses and destroying them have become billion-dollar industries.

teh uesful

Pretty_Generic — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 09:57:17 -0800

for the bookmarks - free browser-embedded antivirus [IE only, I assume Windows only]

OMG, this is a violation of our RIGHTS!!!1

bhayes82 — Sun, 02 Nov 2003 18:29:36 -0800

These guys are pretty upset. Symantec's new Internet Security suite combines a firewall, anti-virus utility, and content-filtering parental controls in one package. And guess what? When a user sets the filter to block "Weapons" sites, it blocks NRA pages!

Internet Security 2004 isn't really the issue, however. It's a (large) "community" once again overreacting, spreading FUD about rights being taken away, political brainwashing, and the world coming to an end.

Or, this is just the best. troll. ever. You decide.

GriffX — Tue, 11 Dec 2001 09:27:50 -0800

Microsoft considering anti-virus support and why we should care.

mcsweetie — Mon, 10 Dec 2001 20:38:06 -0800

Antivirus Firms Say They Won't Create FBI Loophole. A free knuckle sandwich to the first person to say, "looks like magic lantern has been extinguised!"

tranquileye — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 14:00:45 -0800

Rob Rosenberger, editor of Vmyths.com, writes that three uniformed federal police visited him in the middle of the night and asked that he not to publish an upcoming column that would embarrass anti-virus vendor for "national security reasons." From late-October, but intriguing.

feelinglistless — Tue, 24 Apr 2001 15:19:29 -0800

Those British boys at it again. It was like this during the war, y'know. I remember my old mate Alan Turing beating the system in much the same way. Saved the world he did. Tally-ho.

skallas — Sat, 12 Aug 2000 16:19:56 -0800

The bastards at Symantec are now charging for virus updates. They've just lost a customer, a hopefully many more. The feedback form is here if you feel the need to bitch at them.