Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Will Microsoft’s second attempt at entering the anti-virus field result in the ‘vast shake-up’ of the AV industry that was expected last time? The big news in June was the announcement that Microsoft had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property and technology assets of Romanian anti-virus manufacturer GeCAD Software Srl. As might…

Your thoughts on the University of Calgary’s proposals to teach virus writing in its course on computer viruses and malware. Recently VB reported on the University of Calgary’s plans for a new undergraduate course that will ‘focus on developing malicious software such as computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses that are known to wreak havoc…

Microsoft announces acquisition of anti-virus technology. Microsoft has announced the acquisition of anti-virus technology from Romanian AV manufacturer GeCAD Software . The announcement stated that Microsoft has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property and technology assets of GeCAD Software Srl. In addition to developing new solutions, the GeCAD engineering expertise and technology…

University course teaches students to write malware. The University of Calgary has announced very proudly on its website that a new undergraduate course will ‘focus on developing malicious software such as computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses that are known to wreak havoc to the tune of billions of dollars worldwide on an annual basis’.…

US Army gets serious about anti-virus. The US Army is using products supplied by Trend Micro to protect users of its Army Knowledge Online service from viruses, malicious content and spam. Trend’s InterScan VirusWall is being used to monitor SMTP, FTP, and web traffic; eManager provides content filtering and spam blocking; and ServerProtect is used…

Virus writers plead stupidity… Just days after his creation made its first appearance in the Wild, the suspected author of the Iraqi war-themed W32/Ganda worm has been tracked down by Swedish authorities. The man is said to have confessed to having written and distributed the worm, which posed as a screensaver offering spy satellite photographs…

Microsoft supporting secure code initiative at University of Leeds Microsoft seems to be taking security education seriously these days. The software company has pledged support – both financial and in the provision of resources – for a new course which will teach students to write secure code, at the University of Leeds in the UK.…

A US report claims that sentences for computer-related crimes are too harsh. The USA’s largest group of defence lawyers has backed a report claiming that sentences for computer-related crimes are too harsh. In a set of comments submitted to the US Sentencing Commission and signed by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers , the…

Lindows teams up with Central Command to sell Linux anti-virus – a step in the right direction, but perhaps not far enough… Of the Linux distributions, Lindows is possibly the most virus-prone – by default, you are the super-user, therefore you, and any code you run, has the ability to modify any file on the…

Watch out for your marketing department… It makes a change to be reporting on the under-hyping of a virus threat, rather than the usual story of anti-virus companies prostrating themselves to journalists, desperate to be given a couple of column inches in the main-stream media. According to Wired magazine , ‘Security firm Symantec withheld information…