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Software security suffers as startups lose access to Google’s virus data

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Re: Software security suffers as startups lose access to Google’s virus data

#2
This only affects organisations that don't contribute back into the community - leechers in otherwords.

Virustotal has always been a platform whose data is enriched by the community for the benefit of all and so Cylance, Crowdstrike, etc can frankly go suck balls if they don't want to contribute.

Re: Software security suffers as startups lose access to Google’s virus data

#3
Why are they not contributing back? I fail to see any real competitive advantage to gain. Even if you happen to protect against a threat that is not publicly known, you can't really advertise that without a) making it publicly known b) making yourself sound like a jerk.

Re: Software security suffers as startups lose access to Google’s virus data

#5
post #2

This only affects organisations that don't contribute back into the community - leechers in otherwords. Virustotal has always been a platform whose data is enriched by the community for the benefit of all and so Cylance, Crowdstrike, etc can frankly go suck balls if they don't want to contribute.

Sentinel One's position didn't make sense to me.

> “We were more than willing to work with them, but they didn’t have a way for us,” said Tomer Weingarten, chief executive of SentinelOne, a firm that acknowledges it was cut off from the feed against its will. “This is a step back.”

> Weingarten said SentinelOne had added a new data feed to replace VirusTotal and predicted that VirusTotal will become less relevant as companies are excluded.

Even Microsoft's offering has an "advanced membership" through which they encourage users to share specimen of detected suspicious activity back to the mother ship. If Sentinel One can detect, they should be able contribute back?

> The company claims to have a number of customer wins with a malware detection rate of over 90% for zero-day threats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SentinelOne

What are they saying?

Re: Software security suffers as startups lose access to Google’s virus data

#6
Key quote: "Marx of AV-TEST said that some newer companies secretly relied on data supplied by older companies while marketing themselves as a cut above the older technology. "They are using traditional methods, too," he said. Some of the newer companies said they do not share their evaluations for competitive reasons."

The above sentiment may ring a bell for those of you who follow the news. It's the exact same behavior we heard from Theranos: Startup makes headlines as breakthrough technology, but under the hood nothing works and they rely on decades-old technology for actual testing. When asked about their technology (even by their investors!) their reply is "we can't tell you more because competition."

These garbage companies, shrouded in secrecy and enjoying the hype, should be outed for what they are: snake oil.

Re: Software security suffers as startups lose access to Google’s virus data

#9
This is a good move being completely spun around to make it sound like Google is bullying startups. Snake oil should be outed as such, and if those hyped SV darlings like to shroud themselves and their shady techniques in a veil of secrecy (or rather, thick dense clouds of smoke), then they shouldn't be part of an information-sharing network like VirusTotal.

In the end, this is good for everyone's security.

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