Security

AntiVirus Software Still Sucks

Leave a comment

Secunia has posted a rave review of Symantec, saying that the big yellow marketing machine “beats the competition” at detecting exploits. How good is Symantec?

Symantec detected a mere 64 out of 300 exploits, or less than one-fourth, leaving 236 exploits undetected!

Wow, that’s great. Let’s beat the drum for the leader in a space that’s quickly becoming an example of what not to become. Here are the contestants in Secunia’s review:

• McAfee Internet Security Suite 2009
• Norton Internet Security 2009
• Windows Live OneCare
• ZoneAlarm Security Suite 8
• AVG Internet Security 8.0
• CA Internet Security Suite 2008
• F-secure Internet Security 2009
• TrendMicro Internet Security 2008
• BitDefender Internet Security Suite 2009
• Panda Internet Security 2009
• Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
• Norman Security Suite 7.10

Open-source and related solutions were conspicuously ignored.

The complete results are available in a PDF, and show that ten of the eleven products were below a 4% (yes, four percent) detection rate for “important test cases”. In other words, they did not find exploits lurking in html, xls, ppt, and other “productivity” files.

Careful when you click that PDF link. ;)

The bottom line here is don’t believe the hype of AntiVirus marketing. You will not be safe after you install the software. Many more controls and settings are required, and large organizations still need professional staff to measure and reduce risk to a reasonable level. Thanks Microsoft.

In the meantime, if you want to do an AntiVirus software comparison, I recommend using VirusTotal. They have a more comprehensive list of participants:

# AhnLab (V3)
# Aladdin (eSafe)
# ALWIL (Avast! Antivirus)
# Authentium (Command Antivirus)
# AVG Technologies (AVG)
# Avira (AntiVir)
# Bit9 (FileAdvisor)
# Cat Computer Services (Quick Heal)
# ClamAV (ClamAV)
# CA Inc. (Vet)
# Doctor Web, Ltd. (DrWeb)
# Eset Software (ESET NOD32)
# ewido networks (ewido anti-malware)
# Fortinet (Fortinet)
# FRISK Software (F-Prot)
# F-Secure (F-Secure)
# G DATA Software (GData)
# Hacksoft (The Hacker)
# Hauri (ViRobot)
# Ikarus Software (Ikarus)
# K7 Computing (K7AntiVirus)
# Kaspersky Lab (AVP)
# McAfee (VirusScan)
# Microsoft (Malware Protection)
# Norman (Norman Antivirus)
# Panda Security (Panda Platinum)
# PC Tools (PCTools)
# Prevx (Prevx1)
# Rising Antivirus (Rising)
# Secure Computing (SecureWeb)
# BitDefender GmbH. (BitDefender)
# Sophos (SAV)
# Sunbelt Software (Antivirus)
# Symantec (Norton Antivirus)
# VirusBlokAda (VBA32)
# Trend Micro (TrendMicro)
# VirusBuster (VirusBuster)

Security

Scanning Arabic for Terror

Leave a comment

Intuview is an interesting new company that claims it can detect risk within language:

IntuScan is a decision-support expert system for real-time exploitation of documents in Arabic and other languages. Instantly assesses any Arabic-language document, determines whether it contains content of a terrorist nature or of intelligence value, provides a first-tier Intelligence Analysis Report of the main requirement-relevant elements in the document.

I curious how the software will distinguish intent. For example, in writing about the software I am using words that could potentially trip a sensor. Will there still need to be manual review? It seems that Apparently Arabic-language analysts are in high enough demand that software is being proposed as an alternative. The British are famous for using the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as a training ground for non-Western intelligence agents. The result of SOAS is a rich resource of international education. What will be the civilian benefits of IntuScan? More harmonious marriages from software at home — risk analysis and first-tier reports for male-female communicators?

History, Poetry, Security

Ann Boleyn

Leave a comment

by R.P.Weston and Bert Lee, as performed by Stanley Holloway

In the Tower of London, large as life,
The ghost of Ann Boleyn walks, they declare.
Poor Ann Boleyn was once King Henry’s wife –
Until he made the Headsman bob her hair!
Ah yes! he did her wrong long years ago,
And she comes up at night to tell him so.

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour –

She comes to haunt King Henry, she means giving him ‘what for’,
Gad Zooks, she’s going to tell him off for having spilt her gore.
And just in case the Headsman wants to give her an encore
She has her head tucked underneath her arm!

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour.

Along the draughty corridors for miles and miles she goes,
She often catches cold, poor thing, it’s cold there when it blows,
And it’s awfully awkward for the Queen to have to blow her nose
With her head tucked underneath her arm!

Sometimes gay King Henry gives a spread
For all his pals and gals – a ghostly crew.
The headsman carves the joint and cuts the bread,
Then in comes Ann Boleyn to ‘queer’ the ‘do’;
She holds her head up with a wild war whoop,
And Henry cries ‘Don’t drop it in the soup!’

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour.

The sentries think that it’s a football that she carries in,
And when they’ve had a few they shout ‘Is Ars’nal going to win?’
They think it’s Alec James, instead of poor old Ann Boleyn
With her head tucked underneath her arm!

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour.

One night she caught King Henry, he was in the Canteen Bar.
Said he ‘Are you Jane Seymour, Ann Boleyn or Cath’rine Parr?
For how the sweet san fairy ann do I know who you are
With your head tucked underneath your arm!’

Poetry

If You Forget Me

Leave a comment

by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine