Anti-Virus Firms Fear A Lack Of High Profile Viruses -- Pump Up Low Profile Ones

from the yeah,-yeah,-yeah... dept

Six years after the famous "Melissa" mass mailing viruses, some started to say that mass mailing viruses were on the decline. Of course, for the publicity departments of anti-virus firms, that's bad news. They need some sort of virus scare every other day or so to prop up sales. So, wouldn't you know it, just as we're told that mass mailing viruses are on the decline, Symantec comes out with a screaming warning about some new mass mailing virus. Of course, when you look at the details, even they admit that it's a "low" or "moderate" threat. However, that's never stopped the company from ringing the fear bell to try to drum up some extra sales.
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  • identicon
    Adrien, 10 Feb 2010 @ 12:15pm

    It's interesting that there is this perception. Is there any really hard evidence or is it just conjecture? This would make for an interesting paper if there were any credibility to it. I don't think my antivirus company of choice would ever partake in this kind of action, but I can see maintaining relevance being an issue for other firms.

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