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Microsoft Policies Help Virus Writers, Says Security Firm
Barence writes "Security firm Trend Micro has accused Microsoft of giving malware writers a helping hand by advising users not to scan certain files on their PC because 'they are not at risk of infection.' Trend Micro warns that by making such information available, Microsoft is effectively creating a hit list for malware writers. 'Following the recommendations does not pose a significant threat as of now, but it has a very big potential of being one,' the company's researcher, David Sancho, writes on theTrend Micro blog."
Helping virus writers? Don't virus writers target the lowest-hanging fruit: the average Joe? Joe sure as hell doesn't read the Microsoft Knowledge Base, let alone knows of its very existence! Let's be realistic, here. This is coming from third-party AV companies, remember... they're fighting to stay relevant.
It used to be that you could tell people to open picture/film because they were safe. then movie viewer program (i.e. media player) started to execute html to download certificate or decoder. Now you can get a trojan that way. It used to be that getting an email you could not get a virus. Then outlook started to actively open email or even hide extension.
See the trend ? The problem is not that the content cannot be executed, it is that more and more the decoder/reader for such file is looking at active markup or script which allow virus maker to exploit fault (buffer overflow) or execute their own script. Now a days I would not put it past a crafty virus maker to exploit flaws in notepad...
If you trust a single byte on the possibly-infected disk, you're not scanning for viruses: You're asking pretty please for the virus to show itself. Most are polite enough, but why take the chance? Use a known-clean read-only media to boot from, and scan the entire drive.
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
A computer law is needed here, it is a simple best practice that someone needs to carve into stone. "Thou shalt not practice security through obscurity". Nice and simple, covers so very very much and could have saved this anti-virus vendor some public humiliation. This law applies to any operating system or application without fail.