RE: Consumer Reports Slammed for Creating 'Test' Viruses

[Larry Seltzer <Larry () larryseltzer com>]

> > You missed the main argument against what CR did. The results they got
will randomly favour whichever products are better that their choice of
files. They didn't write viruses from scratch, they modified existing
ones, right? 

I was careful to say that I don't know if they did a good or bad job,
just that I don't think writing your own viruses necessarily means
you'll do a bad one.

Yes, it's possible to do a bad job by writing the wrong viruses. If I
were to test AV products with a library of existing malware I'd also be
favoring the ones that do better with my selection. So I don't see your
argument as one against writing viruses, just against writing the wrong
ones.

Larry Seltzer
eWEEK.com Security Center Editor
http://security.eweek.com/
http://blog.eweek.com/blogs/larry%5Fseltzer/
Contributing Editor, PC Magazine
larryseltzer () ziffdavis com 

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