read this securityfocus article and that's the conclusion you should probably come to - MARA is holding the Crossover virus sample hostage; they'll give anti-virus companies the sample if the anti-virus companies will give MARA access to their own virus databases...
this is not how you build trust in the anti-virus industry... an act of good faith, giving the sample to the people who can use it to help protect everyone without any strings attached, would have been much better...
apparently MARA isn't known for being a whiter-than-white-hat in the security field, however... the article above points to evidence of virus writer involvement, for example...
the way i look at this is this: until the existence and nature of Crossover can be confirmed by others (like members of the anti-virus community) the sample effectively does not exist and MARA's press on the matter is no better than FUD... the anti-virus companies should not give in to MARA's extortion scheme - if the virus never goes into the wild then MARA's leverage becomes impotent - if the virus does go into the wild then a victim will send the anti-virus companies a sample and MARA can be blamed for not being more forthcoming and for requiring anti-virus companies to violate responsible viral material handling guidelines just to get a sample...
my message to MARA is this: get bent...
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