Anti-virus and other industry security researchers are generally a knowledgeable and well-intentioned bunch, but the public voices of the industry are usually drawn not from the research community, but from the marketing department. Their pronouncements are often neither technically well founded nor free from commercial considerations.

The army of researchers outside the industry who dominate some open source, security and vulnerabilities discussion lists are often well meaning, but not always as competent or well informed as they think, or would like you to think, and some are far more interested in personal glory than the common good. As a result, virus/anti-virus/security lore bulges with received wisdom that lacks both wisdom and factual basis.

David Harley, the article author co-wrote "Viruses Revealed" which we reviewed couple of weeks ago.

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Related items

• News: Malware myths and misinformation part 2 (29 May 2003)
• Review: Viruses Revealed (28 April 2003)