Making The Grade

Recently, Consumer Reports hired an independent firm to create 5,500 new computer viruses in an attempt to test the makers of virus protection programs ability to discover and/or detect unexpected threats. In return, the software manufacturers and distributors were outraged, citing the unwritten principle that creating and releasing such malware was unethical and potentially dangerous. What are the software companies afraid of ... that their products won't work and Consumer reports will publicize that their virus protection and malware removing products are worthless? As a computer owner, wouldn't you like to know how your digital defenses stacked up against the others? I would. How come you don't see auto makers up in arms about safety advocacy groups taking their brand new products and smashing them for the sake of issuing a crash rating? They too could claim the test results are slanted, but they don't. Auto manufacturers have faith in their product.