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Common Malware Enumeration Initiative

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the needs-a-better-acronym dept.

LogError writes "The Common Malware Enumeration Initiative was just announced. Headed by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and supported by an editorial board of anti-virus vendors and related organizations it should provide a neutral, shared identification method for malware outbreaks."

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Which Platforms? by Brent+Spiner · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't see any specifics. Is this going to be Windows-centric, or are they reporting on ALL malware, regardless of platform?

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  2. Wrong approach to the problem by BierGuzzl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It would be WAY easier to keep a list of names and heuristics for all of the legitimate code out there and have a default deny policy with a whitelist. The only condition that would need to be met is that no legitimate application is denied entry or the concept could become worse than DRM.

  3. Poor naming... by Senzei · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Like the half dozen or so other responses I have seen I think the naming system is a good idea, but the names generated for it would lead to confusion, especially amongst the less computer savvy.


    I think the solution is to handle things the same way that we handle hurricanes. Keep a big list of names and iterate through that for each new virus.


    In that vein I would like to now suggest that viruses be given the dumbest names possible as a means of discouraging stupid kids from writing them to seek publicity. After all who would want to see themselves listed as the author of ChickenChaser .5 or TinyPocketRocket 1.3"

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  4. Bad Thing? by Phreakiture · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Didn't we already decide, that enumaration, amongst other things was a Dumb Idea?

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  5. Re:The first virus I encountered... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Actually, the Pakastani virus was written by a company that went by the name of Brain and is commonly refered to as the Pakastani/Brain virus. It was actually created to punish copyright infringers who bought pirated software from Brain Computer. That's right, even though they made their money by selling illegal copies of software they also deliberately infected it with a virus to punish people for buying their illegal copies.