Antivirus is a Waste
The ZDNet Australia posting Antivirus is ‘completely wasted money’: Cisco CSO says
Companies are wasting money on security processes — such as applying patches and using antivirus software — which just don’t work, according to Cisco’s chief security officer John Stewart.
“If patching and antivirus is where I spend my money, and I’m still getting infected and I still have to clean up computers and I still need to reload them and still have to recover the user’s data and I still have to reinstall it, the entire cost equation of that is a waste.
“It’s completely wasted money,” Stewart told delegates.
He said infections have become so common that most companies have learned to live with them.
“There are too many companies in the world that actually believe infection is just a cost of doing business and are getting used to doing it — as opposed to stopping it completely. That’s dangerous,” he said.
I have worked with companies that also believe infection is just a cost of doing business. My experience is it takes some pain like a security breach to get their attention.
Mr. Stewart thinks a better way of dealing with the unknown is using whitelists.
Of course some antivirus vendors such as McAfee and CA don’t agree with Mr. Stewart views. After all, he is questioning their business models.
…John
