Sony Rogue Rootkit - Perspectives Emerge

Bruce Schneier has some very interesting perspectives on the Sony rootkit saga in a nice roundup at Wired News. Foremost is his observation that anti-virus software applications from major companies, like Symantec and MacAfee, didn't detect the rootkit period, or that those companies didn't warn customers about the problem if they did know about it. Schneier suggests that collusion between the wolves and the sheepdogs has occurred, and points out that the sotware patches from Sony and the anti-virus companies that came so late in the game were merely undersized bandaids. Money quote:

"The story to pay attention to here is the collusion between big media companies who try to control what we do on our computers and computer-security companies who are supposed to be protecting us."

Oh, Schneier smiles and winks at Macintosh users and frowns broadly at Microsoft.

tags: rootkit, collusion