Antivirus helps virus writers.

Am I the only one that thinks some of the articles typed on Antivirus webpages give away some of the antivirus communities fears and therefore give virus writers new ideas?

For instance:

When the slapper worm was discovered, articles were everywhere saying things like "Antivirus researchers have determained that the worm is not targeting any particular site, but fear that in the future a p2p virus such as slapper may target a website AND encrypt it's communication within it's private network."

wtf is that? Maybe just a little adrenaline rush for all the virus junkies out there I don't know I just think it's funny. :o Good morning AO.

I can see what you are saying, but I think there are two basic sorts of virus writers?

1. Those who can
2. Skiddies

I would have thought that the "candos" are quite capable of working things out for themselves. In support of this, I would point out that there have been quite a few "proof of concept" viruses that have later been developed into something nasty.

Also, there are probably as many "dark side" sites and boards out there as there are security/AV? I guess the bad guys talk amongst themselves just like we do?

I think that the real danger is when people rush to publish this or that vulnerability that they have just discovered, to show how "clever" they are. They should tip off the AV/OS providers first. For example, I believe that CERT have a 30 day embargo on publishing vulnerabilities that have NOT already been exploited?

Cheers

That is a very good point, people seem to be more interested in recognition than security at times.