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Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

reuters.com

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Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#61

Post by pinewurst »

mc32 wrote: post #26
igravious wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a bit coincidental that said firm seems to be the only antivirus firm in recent memory (unless I'm mistaken) that seems to be able or willing to uncover government-level shenanigans. No, not a bit coincidental at all. edit: And of course this http://www.wired.com/2015/06/kaspersky-finds-new-nation-stat... from two months ago. First, security breach; now, an attack on their reputation?

It's also not coincidental at all that Kaspersky steers clear of exposing any shenanigans by Moskow. I mean, Eug himself claims Russia produces not only the best programmers but also the best exploit writers.... But surprisingly no exposés on them. Hmmm.

That's also because Eug probably doesn't like the taste of polonium in his tea.

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#62

Post by zzzeek »

XzetaU8 wrote: post #35
x5n1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pure propaganda/fluff piece to damage the company. The media has been going hard against Kaspersky in coordination with government agencies.

The first and foremost "target" here is not only Kaspersky (i.e. Russian tech/security industry) but Russia itself. Notice again the title ;)

so, the whole article is bunk because it is based on anonymous sources and did not get responses from all parties involved, but then because the headline has the word "Russia" in it, that's firm evidence of secret US government collusion with a major news outlet.

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#63

Post by Rudism »

I'd find this very surprising, if true. When I worked for a company that was essentially developing malware, we were able to get ourselves whitelisted by most anti-virus software (either by going through an automated submission process, or outright bribery). The only one who wouldn't budge on principal, no matter what we offered, was Kaspersky. All the others either auto-whitelisted us when we asked or after we paid them. I gained a lot of respect for Kaspersky for that (and lost a lot of respect for the majority of their competitors).

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#65

Post by LorenPechtel »

nathanm412 wrote: post #59
LorenPechtel wrote: post #56

It seems to me that the only people harmed by this were those who were aping Kaspersky instead of doing their own research. How is this different than mapmakers putting irrelevant bogus things on their maps to detect who copied their maps?

If Avast is affected by this and the file is a critical system file, real damage can be done to user's systems. Mcafee had this problem five years ago.

It could be a bad thing for the user that was the victim of a copycat AV but how is that not due to their being a copycat?

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#66

Post by greenyoda »

LorenPechtel wrote: post #56

It seems to me that the only people harmed by this were those who were aping Kaspersky instead of doing their own research. How is this different than mapmakers putting irrelevant bogus things on their maps to detect who copied their maps?

These actions harmed users who had essential system files wrongly quarantined by their anti-virus programs. These users may have spent many hours and dollars trying to resolve the problem. Quote from the article:

"Microsoft's antimalware research director, Dennis Batchelder, told Reuters in April that he recalled a time in March 2013 when many customers called to complain that a printer code had been deemed dangerous by its antivirus program and placed in 'quarantine'."

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#67

Post by lemevi »

atmosx wrote: post #43
tptacek wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Reuters often write "pure propaganda/fluff pieces"? Or is this piece special?

No, it just reports. The agencies and the governments make the agenda (unfortunately). That said, Reuters IMHO is the top reporting authority worldwide along with AP.

> The agencies and the governments make the agenda (unfortunately).

Pretty hefty accusation on the integrity and journalistic ethics of the Associated Press. Do you have a reliable and credible source for this claim?

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#68

Post by yellowapple »

The current title is misleading, and should be rephrased as "Russian antivirus firm accused of faking malware to harm rivals" (or, better yet, "Kaspersky accused of faking malware to harm rivals"). There's absolutely zero actual evidence or examples in the article of Kaspersky doing anything, and the article title in its current form reeks of sensationalism and click-baitiness.

Perhaps a mod should step in and cleanup the title a bit? I realize it's technically the original, but it's still misleading.

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#69

Post by venomsnake »

tptacek wrote: post #39
x5n1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pure propaganda/fluff piece to damage the company. The media has been going hard against Kaspersky in coordination with government agencies.

Does Reuters often write "pure propaganda/fluff pieces"? Or is this piece special?

I tried to find their reporting to the build up to iraq war - if they did it would be there. But I found nothing - seems like everything has been scrubbed from google :( On reuters / iraq in range 2003-2004 google finds nothing hosted on their domain.

Re: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals, say ex-employees

#70

Post by zzzcpan »

theworstshill wrote: post #33

Someone wants to push people off Kaspersky. Counter-intuitive as it is, everyone in the west should use eastern (russian/chinese) anti-viruses and OS, and vice versa. That way, it'll be harder for each government to abuse and spy on their own citizens since I doubt Kaspersy entertains any request from foreign govs.

Avoiding anti-virus software altogether could make it pretty hard for any government to spy on you.
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