Cyber Security Groups Up Against Malware Menace

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» 20 May 2009

Cyber Security Groups Up Against Malware Menace

Three cyber security groups unveiled on Tuesday their plan to band together in order to finally battle against the menace posed by malware. StopBadware.org, the National Cyber Security Alliance, and the Anti-Spyware Coalition will soon team up alongside network providers, government agencies, vendors, researchers, and many other organizations involved in online security. The members of this online crusade said that they want to become a united front against malware developers in the same way certain groups joined together to successfully combat suppliers of adware several years back.

"Organization and collaboration are our best tools against an enemy that doesn't play by any rules," Maxim Weinstein, StopBadware.org's manager, proclaimed in a statement regarding the alliance's formation. He further states that malware makers are in an advantageous position because the Internet allows them to exploit its worldwide network in whatever manner they choose. However, users can respond to their threat "by strengthening our shared networks and by better understanding our shared responsibilities."

Those are rousing and motivating words, but the participants of this war against malware are nonetheless facing a daunting task. The success of the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) in driving Zango, Gato, and other spyware and adware corporations out of business may have inspired the group to do the same, but malware crooks are a different kettle of fish. Unlike most of adware purveyors, malware companies aren't legal entities located within the United States. Truth be told, they're the closest people have at getting an Internet Mafia, and although they're not as deadly as real-life mobsters, they're just about as difficult to put down.

According to an IDG News interview with Ari Schwartz (the vice-president of the Center for Democracy and Technology as well as the ASC's coordinator), Adware vendors from before were actually pressured by the previous alliance to either become legitimate players in the marketplace or become criminal organizations like the aforementioned malware companies.

There's also a bit of ambiguity regarding the concrete tasks the new group plans to implement or assume. Tuesday's announcement merely states that it will "lead the mapping effort and jointly develop ideas and initiatives to form stronger bonds between links on the chain." It seems that the group is merely trying to figure out what its next major task will be. Perhaps getting an appropriate name with an easy to remember acronym might help.

The yet-unnamed coalition also revealed that it will soon release a "paper tracking the results of the mapping project and proposed initial recommendations to strengthen the chain."