McAfee Initiative to Fight Cybercrime
I saw this announcement on CNET and quickly realized we are thinking along the same lines. I’m still looking over the site and reading their materials, but here are my first impressions.
A colleague of mine was first to make the point that scammers could easily spoof the site. That could result in average Internet users having no idea they are giving permission to have malicious code put on their computers. So far, I see no way to avoid this risk. I found myself annoyed for other reasons as well. For example, it wouldn’t even offer to scan my system (Firefox 3 on Mac OS X).
Also, there is a commercial bias behind the existing site that can’t be erased; I think it’s a safe guess the money behind the site comes from their
marketing budget. Otherwise, why not create and fund an independent foundation?
On the other hand, the problem they are targeting is legit, so I like the awareness benefits. Taking a step back, I also like the other functions of the
unit: Grants; awards; and a willingness to be guided by an advisory council.
I plan to test the system scanner on my Windows test machine and I’ll let you know what I think…
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