The "game" Of The Anti-spyware

[Guest Reimar]

The anti-spyware market that never existed is officially dead

section: common, for your questions: KezNews forum, 29.10.2007

If anyone needed evidence that the standalone anti-spyware market is official dead (if it ever existed), along comes Webroot Software with Exhibit A, B and C:

After raising a mind-boggling $108 million in venture capital funding to position Spy Sweeper as the ultimate anti-spyware product, Webroot has officially change the name of its flagship product to downplay the anti-spyware component under the guise of “providing a complete anti-malware solution.”

Instead of Webroot Spy Sweeper with AntiVirus, the product is now called Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware & Firewall. Under an existing arrangement, Sophos is providing the anti-virus capabilities.

[ SEE: Symantec puts price tag on anti-botnet tool ]

This is the ultimate confirmation, in my mind, that the fake anti-spyware market (that never really existed) is now dead. I never quite understood the difference between a spyware threat and a virus threat. For the most part, this was a definitions game played to perfection by both sides — the noxious adware vendors who wanted to be viewed as legitimate; and the slick anti-malware vendors who were only too happy to play along to sell a brand new product.

Earlier this year, I tested standalone anti-spyware applications for a PC World feature and found it truly amazing that consumers were falling for the hustle of paying several times to get full anti-malware protection.

Typically, desktop security vendors sell an anti-spyware tool and charge an extra $10 to add signatures for virus protection. Then there’s Symantec, a company that has slapped a price tag on an anti-botnet utility.

In my mind, they’re all the same — bots, Trojans, spyware, viruses — and computer users shouldn’t be paying extra because security companies get to play the definitions game.

Source

[DaffyDuck]

Earlier this year, I tested standalone anti-spyware applications for a PC World feature and found it truly amazing that consumers were falling for the hustle of paying several times to get full anti-malware protection.

Yeah, and especially incomprehensible to Mac users, who never have to contend with this kind of stuff, and more than likely never will...

Sometimes the cognitive dissonance of the Windows user's world is fascinating.

[cdnvic]

Windows user since 1.0, nary a single virus this decade.

The trends in the past two years have been for antivirus programs to become much better at sniffing out spyware than in the past. As they improve further the standalone antispyware programs become redundant. I don't see them being that necessary in a year's time.