Strategic Alliances? Bring 'em on, we love 'em! 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴�> Rajaat / 29A "Data Fellows Forges Strategic Alliance with Top Anti-Virus Development Company" Maybe you have read these headlines on the site of DataFellows, the home of F-Prot Professional and F-Secure Antivirus and other products (for the cu- rious amongst you with a browser and internet access, take a look at http:/ /www.datafellows.com). I was really glad to hear this, since I think this Strategic Alliance can bring forth a very good Antivirus product. Both Da- taFellows and the AVP team have good programmers, and one of the greatest virus researchers known in the Antivirus scene. As an end user, this would be news from heaven. I started to read on the article, as it was intrigueing... "Helsinki, Finland/San Jose, Calif. October 1, 1997--Data Fellows, the European developer of F-PROT Professional, has formed an exclusive, strategic alliance with another superior anti-virus technology team: the AVP development team led by Eugene Kaspersky. Together these companies combine the best minds in the anti-virus world and are the foundation of the new revolutionary F-Secure Anti-Virus CounterSign Technology from Data Fellows. This new CounterSign Technology allows F-Secure Anti-Virus to be the first line of anti-virus software to combine multiple virus scanning engines into a single framework by using both the F-PROT and AVP anti-virus engines simultaneously." So they want to combine their engines... That's a great idea! This will be much more tougher to defeat. There is no doubt we would like to challenge that product, and try to circumvent it's "excellent" double engine using scanning technique. Don't forget scanning with 2 engines will also take a- bout double of the time it would otherwise do. That would make F-Secure An- tivirus with CounterSign(tm) technology about twice as slow compared to respective other antivirus products worth their money. Anyway... "Because the number of viruses in the world is growing at such an alarming rate, it is nearly impossible for any single anti-virus product to detect and protect against this threat," said Risto Siilasmaa, CEO and Managing Director of Data Fellows, LTD. "With our new CounterSign technology and this combination of two superior anti-virus engines such as F-PROT and AVP, the detection rates of the two engines approaches 100% and the likelihood a virus would go undetected is less than ever before." I like the above paragraph a lot. I do acknowledge the fact that it is in- deed nearly impossible for any single antivirus product to detect and pro- tect against the new wave of viruses. So they combine their CounterSign(tm) technology and "the two superior antivirus engines F-Prot and AVP", and what do we get??? Again a single antivirus product! That's right guys. 1 + 1 = 1 in this case ;-) Stopped laughing yet? Ok... To be to the point, these antivirus engines combined can result in a really difficult to beat antivirus product, but there is also a positive side for us, virus authors. This "Strategic Alliance" also means that in the future we do have to concentrate on one product less! Yes, they are right in res- pect that it is harder to beat this combined product, but it will certainly take less time than testing your virus on 2 completely different products, let alone the fact that it costs you a lot more time to write retro struc- tures against 2 antivirus products instead of one. Afterthought: Should we also take action and form "Strategic Alliances" o- ther groups? We probably would not benefit from a "single virus engine"..., but maybe some kind of function library for easy and clean virus writing... An API? Food for thought and another article I guess :-) People that want to read the complete story go to: (*) http://www.datafellows.com/news/pr/f-secure/st-alnc.htm Rajaat / 29A