[LINK] 'CloudAV' next-gen antivirus

[Rick Welykochy]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> Aug. 5, 2008  http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6666
> 
> Researchers develop next-generation antivirus system
>  
> ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Antivirus software on your personal computer could become 
> a thing of the past thanks to a new "cloud computing" approach to 
> malicious software detection developed at the University of Michigan. 

[SNIP]

Yet another level of unnecessary industriousness dealing with a problem
that should not exist in the first place.

My uneducated guess is that 95% of the types of document referred to
in the article are MS Office and Windows executables. Ban those and problem
basically solved.

As for other means of transmitting virii, The Cloud simply cannot catch
them. (Unless those "virtual machines" in the cloud want to emulate
all platforms all environments all compilers all interpretors, i.e.
javascript, etc.)

History will look back at the late 20th century and wonder how we
ever put up with such insecure document formats ad operating system.

   "Each time a computer or device receives a new document or program,
    that item is automatically detected and sent to  the antivirus cloud
    for analysis."

Heh? "Programs" are executables, often in the form of installation
packages. They are often in the realm of 10s or 100s of MB in size.
Very practical to send these upstream to be checked. Not. What a
useless waste of bandwidth.

And as pointed out already, who in their right mind would submit the
(supposedly) private communicated documents they receive to an anonymous
"cloud"? Sounds very 1984-ish.


cheers
rickw


-- 
________________________________________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services || Internet Driving Instructor

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.
      -- H.L. Mencken