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Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

#31

Post by slg »

hules wrote: post #8

I wonder if anybody has estimations of the contribution of anti-virus software to global warming. They run on almost all desktop computers, are generally large and bloated applications that consume tons of cpu for their continuous scans, I would not be too surprised if was far from negligible.

To be fair, they also are responsible for some reduction in carbon output. I have seen people just get a new machine if their computer gets too compromised with viruses so any level of virus protection will end up keeping computers out of landfills.

Re: Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

#32

Post by pinewurst »

maltalex wrote: post #6

This was already discussed on HN 7 months ago [0]. I'll repeat what I said about it last time: It's a mistake to focus on Norton in this context. The "correct" way of reading of this headline should be something like "reputable company puts an Ethereum wallet and mining software in the hands of millions of users". Now imagine if tomorrow Microsoft decided to add a crypto wallet and mining tools to Windows, or Google…

Effectively they already have, except it's data mining that accrues only to them and continues to grow.

Re: Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

#33

Post by jjoonathan »

_8j50 wrote: post #27
hules wrote: post #8

I wonder if anybody has estimations of the contribution of anti-virus software to global warming. They run on almost all desktop computers, are generally large and bloated applications that consume tons of cpu for their continuous scans, I would not be too surprised if was far from negligible.

Ugh.. do you think AVs are useless or something? Why do people think this. Shit AVs are shit, end of story. Reading memory and is not cpu intensive the disk i/o intensity if windows vs linux alone is very drastic if you want to evaluate that as a baseline instead. It's like asking the carbon footprint of freeway guardrails. I mean, norton sucks, sure but at least turn on defender (which is really good btw). The amoun…

Freeway guardrails have never deleted my car's engine while I was minding my own business staying on the road.

Re: Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

#35

Post by domano »

melling wrote: post #30
hules wrote: post #8

I wonder if anybody has estimations of the contribution of anti-virus software to global warming. They run on almost all desktop computers, are generally large and bloated applications that consume tons of cpu for their continuous scans, I would not be too surprised if was far from negligible.

My 2 year old blog post has the answer to that. http://h4labs.org/ive-got-another-stupid-idea-to-deal-with-c... People come up with all sorts of silly ideas rather than actually addressing the real issue. Addressing virus software will save the world exactly 0 days. UPDATE Coal usage is at record usage for power generation. It emits over twice as much CO2 as natural gas while these silly little ideas about optimizing…

The blogpost only states that we should use gas instead of coal, so if anyone hopes for an answer to the original question you dont need to click.

Re: Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

#37

Post by ryanisnan »

maltalex wrote: post #6

This was already discussed on HN 7 months ago [0]. I'll repeat what I said about it last time: It's a mistake to focus on Norton in this context. The "correct" way of reading of this headline should be something like "reputable company puts an Ethereum wallet and mining software in the hands of millions of users". Now imagine if tomorrow Microsoft decided to add a crypto wallet and mining tools to Windows, or Google…

It's bold to say that this is the "correct" way of interpreting this information. I for one, think it's infuriating. Part of being the best at anything, means doing one thing, and doing it really well. With respect to cybersecurity software, to compromise this ideal at all is highly questionable. To do it to mine cryptocurrency is just ludicrous.

Re: Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

#38

Post by blackboxlogic »

_jal wrote: post #21
feupan wrote: post #5

I’m sorry but this is the funniest thing ever. Wasn’t it just a few years ago we were joking that AV software is the virus? How far have we come.

Perhaps for their next trick they can improve the customer experience in a related niche with bundled ransomware.

And to help even more customers the antivirus could spread between computers using the local network, or by emailing installers to all your contacts.

Re: Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer

#39

Post by sockaddr »

_8j50 wrote: post #27
hules wrote: post #8

I wonder if anybody has estimations of the contribution of anti-virus software to global warming. They run on almost all desktop computers, are generally large and bloated applications that consume tons of cpu for their continuous scans, I would not be too surprised if was far from negligible.

Ugh.. do you think AVs are useless or something? Why do people think this. Shit AVs are shit, end of story. Reading memory and is not cpu intensive the disk i/o intensity if windows vs linux alone is very drastic if you want to evaluate that as a baseline instead. It's like asking the carbon footprint of freeway guardrails. I mean, norton sucks, sure but at least turn on defender (which is really good btw). The amoun…

No, what's staggering is the number of my family members that simply cannot use their computer because it's bogged down by an AV. Also, your analogy is completely wack.
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