[JoeProBono]

"Anti-virus software is an ideal target for a would-be attacker, according to Joxean Koret, a researcher with Coseinc, a Singapore-based information security consultancy. “If you write an exploit for an anti-virus product you’re likely going to get the highest privileges (root, system or even kernel) with just one shot,” Koret told The Intercept in an email. “Anti-virus products, with only a few exceptions, are years behind security-conscious client-side applications like browsers or document readers. It means that Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Word or Google Chrome are harder to exploit than 90 percent of the anti-virus products out there.”

[rarestia]

Been saying this very thing for years. We trust anti-virus software to protect us, but it’s often the most dangerous to the user when turned against the system itself. I’ve seen this happen with older versions of AVG, for instance.

On the other hand, application developers at Adobe, Microsoft, Google, and myriad other development farms have fortified their software to prevent attacks against them. I have an entire lab environment without anti-virus, because I enact strict rules that prevent email and web browsing, the most common vectors for infection and attack.

Malware is a bigger threat nowadays. No one writes viruses except for government entities, because people have grown accustomed to questioning everything. Back doors are so passé!

[Delta 21]

Been surfing “without a net” since dial-up days for that very reason.

‘Cept for the free stuff that never lasts and even then cringing when I installed it, an not feeling or being a bit more secure the whole time.