the virus problem is solved... NOT!

years ago (in 1988 if i'm not mistaken) peter norton (of norton utilities fame) famously stated that computer viruses were an urban myth, like aligators in the sewers of new york... even though he didn't really have much to do with it's development, it's still quite ironic that an anti-virus product bearing his name (norton anti-virus) and at one point his likeness has become one of the dominant forces in the anti-virus industry...

now, john thompson (ceo of symantec, maker of norton anti-virus) is being quoted as saying that the virus problem is solved... if you're wondering - that would be the sound of my irony meter being blown to smitherines from an overload because after 18 years norton-related irony has come full circle...

i don't know what world john thompson is living in or what his special definition of solved is but it seems to me that if people are still having problems with viruses then the virus problem isn't solved...

the virus problem is fairly clearly not solved, so how are we to interpret claims that it is? well, one conclusion that we can draw is that if symantec thinks the problem is solved then they can't have any vision for future innovation in the anti-virus domain - after all, you wouldn't call something solved if you were still in the process of coming up with better solutions, would you?...

if they were just changing their focus to more socially engineered attacks like phishing and fraud instead of traditional malware as has been suggested (in spite of the fact that malware remains a great enabling technology for those other kinds of attacks), then why try so hard to divert attention away from the virus problem? why say something they know isn't true (and i'm pretty sure they know the virus problem isn't solved - they aren't dummies) unless there's something they're trying to hide (like a lack of vision, or perhaps a belief that they aren't going to be able to be nearly as successful in the av industry in the future as they are now)...

whatever's going on, saying the virus problem is solved is a statement that should engender mistrust, not just because it's blatantly false but because it's likely some kind of deception (like a magician or street hustler employing the art of misdirection so that you don't notice the trick)... something just doesn't feel right about it...