Seeing this Tweet by rashmibansal wondering if The companies which sell anti virus software create more of them to stay in business, I thought I will put up my Observations and Opinion about Virus, AntiVirus and general Security concerns in the world of Digital Technology.

Here are my Observations

I started with a little more Research on the subject. A Google Query lead me to a Discussion Thread started by SkepticOverlord; a member of AboveTopSecret.com Forum, The anti-virus software conspiracy where the author raises similar doubts

The Response therein by People gives you further insights and information.

In the Past I have often seen People raising these doubts. From my Experience of Life, Corporate World, The IT Industry and the way Business are run in general, it does seem possible. The AntiVirus Companies will have some kind of Strategy to create/grow more Business in some way.

They might not be directly involved in creating these viruses themselves but there is a smarter way to achieve the same result by leaving some loopholes in the Anti virus so there is room for further exploitation by People and subsequently creating the need for better and updated Anti Virus to deal with it.

This they can do by maintaining a Balance based on other solutions available out there and not providing solutions to Problem that has not been reported yet, even if they do foresee these security vulnerabilities

This might sound like a Conspiracy Theory created in my mind out of nothing, but being a Programmer myself with a fair understanding of Computer Technology and the Security issues concerned, I tend to think so

This is for this suspecting nature of mine that I prefer to use Open Source Technologies, which are Transparent in nature.

With no direct business interest in getting a User to adopt a piece of Software, they will have little or no reason to mislead People by making false claims. The information provided with the Software will generally be honest, trustworthy and convincing.

The reviews, comments etc about the piece of Software by those who understand Technologies will also be more trustworthy and reliable.

If I have any doubts I can even have a look at the code to get an idea about the Quality of the Software and if there has been any compromises.

For the last couple of Years I have switched to Linux completely and hardly use any Proprietary Software. Linux is said to be Virus Free

From Security on Ubuntu

Conventional wisdom in the Linux community says that there are either no or very few Linux viruses out in “the wild”, and that most are just proof-of-concept theoretical viruses.

He also points out that it’s the user who makes a System vulnerable.

From What’s the most important part of OS security?

The user. It’s always the user. I’d rather have a smart user running as administrator on a Windows computer with no firewall, no anti-virus, and no anti-spyware than a dumb user running as limited user on a Ubuntu computer with a firewall, anti-virus, and a rootkit detector. Dumb users click on anything, somehow manage to install untrustworthy software even without administrative privileges, and use easy-to-guess passwords.

If I have to use Windows, I do not use AntiVirus, I just be careful before clicking on anything or doing anything in the Coputer for that matter.

In another Blog post Robert Nyman doubts if we need Antivirus at all.

From Do we really need antivirus software?

Out of curiosity, I’ve unplugged the network cable on some computers and just tried doing some basic tasks and also transferring files over USB from an external hard drive. The performance experience is staggering!

And part of me starts to wonder if all these antivirus software vendors are riding the wave of people’s fears, that their product will be bought just out of “better safe than sorry”-panic. Sure, certain operating systems have some serious flaws, but shouldn’t those be fixed by the operating system vendor before the system is released to begin with?

Conclusion

The AntiVirus Companies may or may not create the Virus, but you can protect yourself by staying informed and by being careful

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