Virus-creating magazine slammed
A consumer magazine has been condemned for possibly adding to the virus problem by creating a series of "test" viruses just to review anti-virus scanners. In an act that has long been considered technical taboo, US-based consumer affairs organisation, ConsumerReports.org, decided to generate 5,500 "test" viruses to run, under lab conditions, against 12 leading anti-virus software products.
The organisation?s own website describes the methodology used: "To pit the software against novel threats not identified on signature lists, we created 5,500 new virus variants derived from six categories of known viruses, the kind you?d most likely encounter in real life."
