ZDNet Australia
Companies are wasting money on security processes — such as applying patches and using antivirus software — which just don't work, according to Cisco's chief security officer John Stewart.
Speaking at the AusCERT 2008 conference in the Gold Coast yesterday, Stewart said the malware industry is moving faster than the security industry, making it impossible for users to remain secure.
"If patching and antivirus is where I spend my money, and I'm still getting infected and I still have to clean up computers and I still need to reload them and still have to recover the user's data and I still have to reinstall it, the entire cost equation of that is a waste.
"It's completely wasted money," Stewart told delegates.
He said infections have become so common that most companies have learned to live with them.
/snip
| Antivirus is 'completely wasted money': Cisco CSO | |
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| Post #1 May 24 2008, 07:37 | |
Resident Elite  Group: Registered Posts: 1,366 Joined: 28-April 08 From: Australia Member No.: 251,981 
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| Post #2 May 24 2008, 07:44 | |
Neowinian ULTRAKILL   Group: Global Moderator Posts: 10,031 Joined: 7-January 05 From: London, UK Member No.: 89,580
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I must agree to an extent.
It would be much more beneficial for companies to invest in something like DeepFreeze. |
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| Post #3 May 24 2008, 08:00 | |
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Resident Elite Group: Registered Posts: 1,366 Joined: 28-April 08 From: Australia Member No.: 251,981
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Quote - (bmaher @ May 24 2008, 18:14)  I must agree to an extent. It would be much more beneficial for companies to invest in something like DeepFreeze. I think the best approach to these threats is hybrid solution. No one solution is 100% effective. However, saying that Antivirus is a waste of money is a very brave and IMHO plain silly thing to say. |
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| Post #4 May 24 2008, 10:24 | |
Neowinian  Group: Registered Posts: 2,953 Joined: 19-April 02 From: Norway Member No.: 11,843
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He's got a point, but saying it's a waste of money is stupid. I can agree that when a PC is infected, it is in most cases best to reinstall it. But antivirus programs also have an importan proactive role. It stops most viruses from infecting and spreading to other corporate computers etc.
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| Post #5 May 24 2008, 10:39 | |
Resident Fanatic  Group: Registered Posts: 733 Joined: 15-February 08 From: Essex, UK Member No.: 247,867
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i had a virus on my home laptop a little while back.. it somehow managed to get past norton 2008 with all the updates... i contacted norton and they told me i'd have to pay £70for them to get rid of it...... i told them where to stuff it and just formatted lol...
its bad that because their system which is meant to prevent viruses failed, that they wanted to charge me so much money! |
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| Post #6 May 24 2008, 10:44 | |
make this your day Group: Registered Posts: 2,466 Joined: 30-December 03 From: Australia Member No.: 43,974
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Norton doesn't count as an AV.
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| Post #7 May 24 2008, 10:48 | |
Neowinian³  Group: Registered Posts: 443 Joined: 7-January 07 From: The Restaurant at the End of The Universe Member No.: 194,157
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I have to disagree with the statement, although the context in with which it is made, is certainly true.
If i was spending money on Anti-Virus products and still getting infected then yes that would constitute a waste of money, but at the same time, how many issues has that Anti-Virus product protected against. You have to ask yourself how the machines are being compromised, is it thorugh Malware installing from websites, is it because of an Operating System vulnerability. Both of these can be countered, using Proxy Servers to filter out those websites that are known to host malicious code, and educate employees on a secure computing policy, secondly ensure that the operating system has the lastest security patches applied to it. Of course no process is 100% secure, all we can ever do in this game, is to apply best practice and hope for the best. |
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| Post #8 May 24 2008, 10:51 | |
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Resident Fanatic Group: Registered Posts: 810 Joined: 27-June 07 Member No.: 231,440
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LOL That's why I use ClamWin on Windows... That way I don't need to pay for virus scanners... As for other malware, I don't do anything that would cause me to get spyware, adware and such. I'm wary of JS, VBS and BAT files in Windows as well as readme HTML files containing JS, so I don't need to worry about those threats because I can dig through things to be sure that it is 100% safe. In fact, the only reason I have a virus scanner is because I use Frostwire from time to time. Otherwise, I don't have issues with torrenting Linux distros, and therefore I have no real need for a virus scanner.
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| Post #9 May 24 2008, 10:53 | |
Neowinian ULTRAKILL Group: Registered Posts: 14,496 Joined: 17-July 06 From: The Intertubes Browser: Firefox 3.6 Member No.: 173,696
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Quote - (chAos972 @ May 24 2008, 06:44) Norton doesn't count as an AV. Not in my opinion. There are far superior free Programs such as Avast, and AVG. A friend of mine has never used a AV program and he has never been infected. I just use Avast with the Standard Shield only. |
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| Post #10 May 24 2008, 11:01 | |
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Resident Elite Group: Registered Posts: 1,366 Joined: 28-April 08 From: Australia Member No.: 251,981
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Quote - (chAos972 @ May 24 2008, 20:14) Norton doesn't count as an AV.  Neither should McAfee. It's more like malware the way it takes up CPU cycles and resources.IMHO It's (1)Avast (2)Kaspersky (3)NOD32. |
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| Post #11 May 24 2008, 11:07 | |
Neowinian Group: Registered Posts: 3,534 Joined: 4-October 02 Member No.: 17,953
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Quote - (zer0l0gic @ May 24 2008, 07:01) Neither should McAfee. It's more like malware the way it takes up CPU cycles and resources.IMHO It's (1)Avast (2)Kaspersky (3)NOD32. I agree with that first part of your post, but that second part is flatout absurd! Sould be (1)Kaspersky, (2)NOD32, (3) Avast Said by Gary7 "Not in my opinion. There are far superior free Programs such as Avast, and AVG. A friend of mine has never used a AV program and he has never been infected. I just use Avast with the Standard Shield only." How would your friend know if he's ever been infected or not, if he's never used an AV? Those kind of statements are also flat out absurd! |
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| Post #12 May 24 2008, 11:13 | |
I'm a rage! :3  Group: +Subscriber Posts: 2,255 Joined: 21-April 07 From: Cookie Land! Member No.: 219,894
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Avast is bad. Even though my friend had it installed he still got infected with a virii. When he switched to AVG, he found two worms and a trojan.
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| Post #13 May 24 2008, 12:21 | |
BlackBerry Tour Group: Registered Posts: 2,668 Joined: 20-August 07 Member No.: 234,799
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it somehow managed to get past norton 2008 with all the updates
rofl sorry you needed to get nailed with a bug for running norton |
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| Post #14 May 24 2008, 12:25 | |
Neowinian UNSTOPPABLE  Group: Restricted (profile) Posts: 7,057 Joined: 8-May 04 From: Portugal Member No.: 55,115
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Quote - (Gary7 @ May 24 2008, 11:53) A friend of mine has never used a AV program and he has never been infected. How do you know that he's not infected if you don't test it with a AV? edit: beaten by cork1958 |
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| Post #15 May 24 2008, 12:36 | |
Neowinian Senior Group: Registered Posts: 2,179 Joined: 5-April 04 From: Kentucky, USA Member No.: 51,860
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That it's still possible for viruses to corrupt your system doesn't mean that antivirus products are a waste of money, just as how locking the doors of your home won't prevent all robbery attempts but that doesn't mean locking the doors is a waste of time. It truly wouldn't surprise me if John Stewart lost his job because of his patently stupid remark.
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