Spybot - Search and Destroy 1.5 Beta

[PaulBB]

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications.

-{ Quote: "Also, after struggling for months with Microsoft about Spybot - Search &D Destroy 1.5 and the more advanced Certified for Vista logo, we have decided not to get our next release certified. While we found the "Certified for Vista" logo requirements to be very useful to enforce a high software quality in general, it has a huge drawback, which essentially makes every certified security software prone to getting disabled by malware. Under these circumstances, version 1.5 will only receive the "Works with Windows Vista" logo, but at least there's nothing left blocking the release, which will take place as a beta version this week.
http://www.safer-networking.org/files/beta/spybotsd15.exe
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?p=96261#post96261" }-

[Mrkvonic]

I always liked Patrick. He's a cool dude.
Mrk

[Escalader]

-{ Quote: "I always liked Patrick. He's a cool dude.
Mrk" }-

Hi Mrk:

I don't understand (again!) how a certification process or feature could be a security threat? What is happening here?

"....it has a huge drawback, which essentially makes every certified security software prone to getting disabled by malware"

[Ilya Rabinovich]

-{ Quote: "I always liked Patrick. He's a cool dude.
Mrk" }-
"Cool dude" is not a profession.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
No, but it's a prerequisite for being a professional. Cool people make cool software. Usually. Or they turn out to be totally mental.
Escalader, you can read more on the S&D forum / site.
Mrk

[Ilya Rabinovich]

-{ Quote: " Cool people make cool software. Usually. " }-
Agree :D But I would say: "cool software is made by cool people".

[Escalader]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
No, but it's a prerequisite for being a professional. Cool people make cool software. Usually. Or they turn out to be totally mental.
Escalader, you can read more on the S&D forum / site.
Mrk" }-

Thanks Mrk:

I'll pop over for a read soon... fishing in a different pond at the moment

[Perman]

Hi, folks: This vista logo certification program reminds me of some industry's ISO 9000 certification program. Some companies are proud of being certified by that institution and this organization highly promotes its overstated values to consumers. In some perhaps many occasions, consumers are mislead to believe any products produced by companies bearing this ISO logo are superior to others which do not have it , in quality and services. IMO, it is purely a marketing ploy and more or less a self-regulatory mechanism. By the same token, MS imposes such a certification requirement is to control who is in and who is out. If you abide by what you have been told to do then you are in, otherwise, exit please, and who is next? Vista itself has holes more than cheese(BTW, I hate it, because I need Pepto Bismol each time I consume even a slice of cheese), let alone asking others to take it in ? Funny business.

[lucas1985]

-{ Quote: "I don't understand (again!) how a certification process or feature could be a security threat? What is happening here?" }-
More Vista logos... (http://www.safer-networking.org/es/news/index.html)
-{ Quote: "
During the past week, we've added the "Works with Windows Vista" to four additional programs: RunAlyzer, FileAlyzer, RegAlyzer and TagsRevisited. All these applications already worked on Vista, but now have received enough testing as well as updates (e.g. to support Vista's UAC) to be ready to be faced with the Works with Windows Vista logo program.

Also, after struggling for months with Microsoft about Spybot - Search &D Destroy 1.5 and the more advanced Certified for Vista logo, we have decided not to get our next release certified. While we found the "Certified for Vista" logo requirements to be very useful to enforce a high software quality in general, it has a huge drawback, which essentially makes every certified security software prone to getting disabled by malware. Under these circumstances, version 1.5 will only receive the "Works with Windows Vista" logo, but at least there's nothing left blocking the release, which will take place as a beta version this week.

For those interested in the technical background of the decision:

Microsoft requires software that applies for this logo program to immediately crash when confronted with a situation described by Microsoft in detail. The background of this still is useful in a standard situation - software that has bugs should actually crash instead of just trying to hide them, so that Windows Error Reporting can log the problem and forward it to the developer. This way Microsoft can assure that applications that are part of the "Certified for Vista" program are of high quality.

However, In the context of a security application, this is hazardous: if malware writers can use a perfectly documented way to crash a security application, the overall security is greatly harmed. To avoid this, we suggested some alternatives to Microsoft that would not compromise the goal of submitting bug reports on errors that are the fault of the developer of the software.
" }-
:)