F-Secure's Own Press Releases Apparently Invisible To Its Employees
from the jedi-mind-trick dept
A couple of weeks ago, F-Secure got called out by another anti-virus company accusing it of whipping up hype about the threat of mobile viruses for its own benefit. F-Secure, of course, denied this claim, acting innocent, but the next week sounded the alarm again under questionable circumstances. The company received a sample of a new variant of an existing mobile virus -- one that like the others before it, requires some effort to install, and isn't very widespread. Keep in mind F-Secure just got a sample of the virus, it didn't receive any reports of it actually being in the wild, a point it later conceded after a Symbian exec again said F-Secure was overhyping the threat. What's a little more interesting, though, is this quote from somebody at the company: "[The threat from Commwarrior] isn't vast yet, but F-Secure is not issuing alerts or press releases". That's pretty funny, because this looks an awful lot like an F-Secure press release about the new virus variant, and it doesn't help further the case that F-Secure is being completely honest and innocent.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Since the article is not worthy..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I format my comp all the time, the only thing on it is the standard application, the OS, and the games, all which could be reinstalled in approximately 20 minutes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Xcetron
you can install your entire OS, a 'standard application' and all your games in 20 minutes? gee, i didnt know people still played solitaire on windows 3., or perhaps you mean you can restore a disk image in 20 minutes? (yes, i know, i'm being a pedant, but he deserves it)
on the other hand, whilst your pc can break the speed of light, here in the real world the solution is not to simply 'format my comp all the time'. in fact, i heartily reccomend you walk up to an administrator of a 200+ node network and tell him he shouldnt bother protecting it, he should just format every machine all the time.
back on topic, i'm amazed on an almost continual basis by the overwhelming fear everyday people have of 'hackers getting into my hard drive' or 'viruses wiping out my identity', often to the point of installing several firewalls or viruscheckers. its ridiculous behaviour from companies like F-Secure that is largely responsible. perhaps we could just take the safety labels off everything and let the problem solve itself?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
RE: Xcetron
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WOW!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
F-Secure custom article template
The only thing that is more ridiculous than F-Secure's constant fear-mongering is the lack of discernment by legitimate news sources that continue to report it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nokia Buy Into The Hype
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'd rather be informed and aware of a possible threat than not know at all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lab threats vs. actual threats
In my estimate, the probablility is roughly the same as getting hit by lightning while wearing polka dot flip flops and singing Sinatra.
The original poster is of the opinion that F-Secure shouldn't send out alerts on this type of threat simply to have their name in the new every day. It doesn't help the overall cause of getting consumers to be aware of their online security and borders on fear mongering.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]