MED2000 wrote:
Mijcar,
I think you are going to get some negative reaction from the cloud. I think you are not aware of the quality of the bloggers nor the seriousness of the problem.
Each blogger has identified his concern about 'SONAR' and how it has affected him/her and giving issues that should be addressed.
You mention, if you were developing software. This is not a "developing software" issue. This is about existing software issues.
For me, the problem is software that has been distributed and used over time and now unknowing users have downloaded the "Free Norton Upgrade". The user now clicks on the software that he/she has been using and it is not on her computer anymore.
Is that our problem? YES and NO. YES, now we have to spend our time and go and correct the issue and NO, it was not created by us nor our testing...
Norton is the one that should be testing their software...
F
Any security product worth its name is going to look for early warning behavior. The first warning is malware signatures; the second warning is malware-like behavior. And any new application that tries to modify the registry, changes files that are intrinsic to the system, that goes places malware likes to go will trigger a warning. Once an application is ready for the big time, it will still have to be found acceptable nor just by Symantec, but by every security company's product out there.
Initially, the heart of this discussion was about developers working on their own computer and having their own product identified as a threat and removed -- while they were still working on it! That is a legitimate problem: You don't want your creation pulled out and deleted while you are working at it. I've lost six hours of work once on new code by a simple act of stupidity; I know what that kind of loss can feel like.
But now we are also talking about someone, anyone, who has released his new application into the wild and feels it should be immediately accepted as the safe thing it is.
Bull.
Even a friendly app can be dangerous. When we design software, we run the risk of bumping into something we had no reason to expect. If this can happen to a big company like Symantec (or like Microsoft, for that matter), then it can happen to anyone. So my friendly Calendar app can inadvertantly do registry damage when it is on a machine with someone else's equally friendly weather-reporting application -- because neither of us anticipated the collision between the two programs.
Maybe I am misreading you, but you seem to be saying that developers of various skill levels (some high, some low) have a right to develop and market or simply give away their creations to the general public without beta testing, without security testing, without validation at their own personal whim. I wish that were true and also safe -- it would make my own developing a lot easier. But looking at this from the point-of-view of the consumer, these developers are nothing more than street corner guys flipping open their jackets to show me their wares. I need some protection from the sociopaths among them.
Once I have developed my application, I need to prove it is safe and that means it has to pass the various security test obstacles legitimately put in their path by security companies. And if my application trips their security warning system, then it is time for my application to identify itself as safe and then the companies can release modifications to accomodate my product or perhaps I will have to make the modifications.
My gosh, think how easy it would be to write a user friendly application to keep track of upcoming movies, for example, and to bury in that application a time bomb set to go off on Aug. 21, 2011. And on that date, 200,000 people will find all their personal documents zeroed out and a rootkit deep inside, besides. Crazy? Hardly. This kind of malware has already been out there doing its thing for a long time.
So you get my support in terms of a product that allows you room to develop. You do not get my blessing for a product to be used on other people's computers that will blindly accept the behavior of any application they happen to acquire on their computer.
Message Edited by mijcar on 11-29-2009 03:53 PM
mij
[XP3 and Vista2, IE 8, Firefox 3.6, NSW 12 Basic, NIS2010 (17.5.0.127); No other active securityware], Norton 360
