Why Antivirus Companies Like Mine Failed to Catch Flame and Stuxnet

[siljaline]

By Mikko Hyppönen

A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from Iran. It was sent by an analyst from the Iranian Computer Emergency Response Team, and it was informing me about a piece of malware their team had found infecting a variety of Iranian computers. This turned out to be Flame: the malware that has now been front-page news worldwide When we went digging through our archive for related samples of malware, we were surprised to find that we already had samples of Flame, dating back to 2010 and 2011, that we were unaware we possessed. They had come through automated reporting mechanisms, but had never been flagged by the system as something we should examine closely. Researchers at other antivirus firms have found evidence that they received samples of the malware even earlier than this, indicating that the malware was older than 2010.

Article

[AlexC]

Cyber War between State-Nations. One question that comes to mind is how far one should consider geopolitics when choosing software and web services (O.S, antivirus, e-mail services, social networks, etc)?

For instance: should a iranian use Windows or trust in a american antivirus to protect their computer? Or should an american use a iranian AV or e-mail service? I don't think so, that would be naive, IMHO.

[siljaline]

We were warned by a Moderator earlier that Wilders is not a Political Forum but a Security Forum. I speak, strickly, from a security point of view.
The opinions expressed in the quoted article are those of the individual that wrote and | or contributed to said article.

Originally Posted by AlexC

Cyber War between State-Nations. One question that comes to mind is how far one should consider geopolitics when choosing software and web services (O.S, antivirus, e-mail services, social networks, etc)?

For instance: should a iranian use Windows or trust in a american antivirus to protect their computer? Or should an american use a iranian AV or e-mail service? I don't think so, that would be naive, IMHO.

[Pinga]

Originally Posted by AlexC

how far one should consider geopolitics when choosing software and web services

This is arguably one of the most relevant issues in the industry right now. Of course it should be discussed!

[Cudni]

By all means discuss this and similar issues that have a political element but do so in forums dedicated to such matters.