McAfee to wipe mess off .xxx pr0n sites

ICM Registry, which plans to start selling .xxx domain names later this year, has inked a deal with McAfee to provide a free daily security scan for every website at a .xxx address. The deal with the Intel-owned security business is worth $8m, according to ICM. McAfee will scan every .xxx domain name every day for security …

[Anonymous Coward]

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

McAfee is so bad, they even struggle to give it away

[TheOtherJola]

McAfee is so, so poor

If McAfee have another false positive debacle, it's a good job it can't start deleting your MySQL database because it looks like something found in a virus signature.

Seriously, when will the population realise that marketing spend != R&D spend?

[Anonymous Coward]

when they realise

marketing spend <> R&D spend?

[Anonymous Coward]

Worse than that

It's common knowledge that AV vendors such as McAfee and Norton actually pay PC manufacturers to preinstall (trial versions of) their product.

[sam 16]

Good buisness...

Generally people don't buy the best product. They buy the best sold product.

Once one antivirus company is willing to pay for a trial version install, all of the others have to, whether they have the best product or not, because most users will just upgrade the trial version.

If you are procuring for a public sector contract or a big company, the manufacturer assumes you will want to see hard data for why their product is faster, cheaper, has a better detection ration. They go out of their way to make that data available to you, draw your attention to whether their product differentiates, and where it is independently verifiable.

When marketing to a consumer, the companies seem to reduce information content to zero. I see an ad for a credit card at the station - it features a sexy woman, a man in a suite, a catchy slogan, but no graphs. Sad.

[Anonymous Coward]

it's a dirty job...

but somebody or something has to do it. Scan the entire smut domain. Just thinking about it makes my arm tired.

[Elmer Phud]

Just Google it?

If you're running AVG and use Google to search for 'Seamstresses' then AVG will tell you it's O.K. or not. Google will also pop up a cautionary box (fnar fnar) as a warning.

And all without paying anything to McAfee

[zb]

What?

Seamstresses?

Did I miss something?

[I'm not sleeping...]

In this case...

McAfee is now an Intel arm! I bet they are already excited about this deal!

Mine is the one with the Trojan pack in the pocket.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha ha ...

install a code snippet on their shopping carts that displays a McAfee SECURE "trust mark",

Ah so jpeg with link that takes you to a page saying xyz.xxx is trusted.....

Yup bad guys would NEVER think of doing this...but of course everyone would check the link, page source and certs carefully; wouldn't they?

[The BigYin]

This won't be a problem...

...in the UK (and probably no in Oz either). ISPs will just be told to block all ".xxx" sites. Why? To protect the children, dammit! </daily mail>

[Anteaus]

But..

Site advisor only tells you that McAfee think the site isn't a malicious one in itself. It doesn't tell you if a legit site has been compromised by malware.

Also, the site advisor ratings are generated by volunteers, and by the looks of things the process is vulnerable to robot spamming, judging by the numerous sites flagged with identical, nonspecific malware alerts.

Therefore, IMHO not a reliable source.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hang on...

Hate to be the bringer of bad tidings to the proud new owners of the great and protected 3x SUB-DOMains... but isn't having McAfee check a website for issues a bit like expecting a ricepaper condom to safeguard against STIs during a month long ladyboy safari in Bangkok?*... Just saying is all:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/29/mcafee_website_security_flaws/

* If anyone does... *ahem*... know how to have 'Total ProtectionTM' from potential negative affects from the latter activity, please provide full deatails... My, ah... 'friend' professed an interest...

[Sander DR]

This is useless

Owners of malicious websites can simply detect that someone visiting their site is a McAfee bot or a normal visitor. They can serve clean content to the McAfee bot and malware to the normal visitor.

This is just another attempt by the ICM Registry to make their new tld look better than it in reality is. Heh, the adult industry doesn't even want the .xxx tld so ICM is desperately looking to add what may look like value to some but is in reality useless.

[Bernard M. Orwell]

Seamstresses...

...is another Terry Pratchett reference, I believe.