Panda Security Insight

Even after all these years, I never cease to be surprised by the durability of certain myths surrounding the IT security industry. Like urban legends, these myths seem to linger for years, with adaptations and variations to suit all tastes. Here are some of the more common ones, yet I’m sure there are plenty of others.

• The greatest myth, without doubt, about the IT security industry is the one about the antivirus companies making the viruses. This has been going at least since our company was set up, some 20 years ago. Of course, this claim is absurd, particularly considering that we currently receive more than 55,000 new and different viruses every day.  Also, I think this would be a very difficult secret to keep under wraps for the more than 20 years that the industry has been protecting users.  One of the real problems that we have had to resolve in the sector over this time is how to process all of this malware in order to protect our users. The truth is that it is criminal gangs -operating in line with a cyber-crime business model- that are behind the creation and distribution of all of this malware.
• Another similar canard about the security industry is that hackers are frequently employed by the antivirus companies. Obviously, here I cannot speak for the rest of the industry, but at Panda Security this is an issue that has always greatly concerned us, and we have never knowingly contracted hackers who have operated “on the dark side”.  We have however (and we are always on the lookout if anyone is interested) contracted white-hat hackers.  The profiles are varied: engineers, mathematicians, physicists, self-taught, etc.  What all of them have in common is a genuine interest -sometimes a real passion- in IT security. 
• On a slightly different point, it is also commonly believed that there are no women working in technology companies, particularly in security. At Panda at least this is clearly untrue; more than 30% of the workforce are women, many of whom work in technical areas and management including CTO, CIO, head of Panda Research, Support director, QA manager, and many more.
• Another old favorite is the myth that viruses don’t affect Mac or Linux.  We are frequently asked about viruses for Mac, Linux and cell phones. It is commonly held that none of these present any risks to users, as viruses are only designed for Windows platforms.  The truth however is that there are viruses for these platforms. The difference lies in the amount of malware circulating in comparison with threats designed for Windows. The explanation is simple: If you are a cyber-crook trying to profit from your activity and you want to infect as many victims as possible, what is the ideal target? A platform with 10 million users or one with 500 million? The answer is obvious.

However, no matter how much we try to dispel these myths, they do have a tendency to linger… : -)

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Malware, security