If you don't like the feature, turn it off. That is why we have the options tab. Obviously we can not control what others do with the AV but you could minimize what extra traffic you may be creating with these messages. I personally have never had it send a message to the sender, this being one of the reasons.
As far as the "marketing" goes for Big AV businesses I believe most of the items you listed can be disabled and you can bet the AV companies are surely not going to send it out that way...It's all about the $$$$ my $.02
Take Care
Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: 3APA3A [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 6:12 AM
To: Fabio Gomes de Souza; Russ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Full-Disclosure] AV "feature" does more DDoS than Sobig
Dear Fabio Gomes de Souza,
Few Russian security and Internet professionals who's mailboxes were
flooded by AV reports signed an open letter to antiviral developers,
administrators and users called "AntiViruses to ruin Internet?". It ends
up with words "If we want to live here we must shut up all these
robots".
http://www.bugtraq.ru/library/security/antiantivirus.html (sorry, it's
in Russian).
It was published on few well-known sites. At least few huge mail
services now do not generate AV reports to sender. May be it's a time to
make same PR action worldwide.
--Thursday, August 28, 2003, 5:05:20 PM, you wrote to [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
FGdS> Hello,
FGdS> Anti-virus products are causing more harm than the Sobig Worm.
FGdS> Some of my customers are having the following problem:
FGdS> B = Customer of my customer (infected)
FGdS> C,D,E = Some random company (victims of Sobig)
FGdS> A = My customer (victim of AV marketing)
FGdS> The Sobig worm infected B.
FGdS> In its propagation loop, the worm composes a message, chooses two random
FGdS> items in the Address Book, and puts the first in the "From:" and the
FGdS> second in the "To:" header. Then all virus messages are spoofed.
FGdS> The problem is that many e-mail virus scanners send a "You are infected"
FGdS> reply to the address contained in the "From" header. Since the messages
FGdS> are spoofed, the inoccent, uninfected user "A" is flooded by automatic
FGdS> complaints from "C","D","E" regarding the virus that "B" sends.
FGdS> Anti-virus companies seem to spend more money on marketing/visibility
FGdS> than on actually protecting their customers. This marketing stupidity is
FGdS> done by adding USELESS features, which spreads false information and
FGdS> delivers false sense of security:
FGdS> - "You're infected" reply (false positive)
FGdS> - "This message is 100% virus-free certified" signature line (false
FGdS> sense of security)
FGdS> - Anti-virus buttons on Internet Explorer toolbar (just to launch the AV)
FGdS> - Splash screens every time you:
FGdS> - boot your computer
FGdS> - send e-mail
FGdS> - check pop3 e-mail
FGdS> - turn your computer off
FGdS> - System tray useless icons (in some AVs, the system tray icon does
FGdS> nothing except for launching the AV program)
FGdS> - Redundant shortcut icons in Desktop, Start Menu root, Quick Launch
FGdS> and Start Menu program folder
FGdS> This kind of stupidity from AV companies makes me hate them more every day.
--
~/ZARAZA
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