[Infowarrior] - Cybersecurity groups band together in malware fight

[Richard Forno]

Cybersecurity groups band together in malware fight

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/19/anti_malware_coalition/

'A chain of trust'

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Security, 19th May 2009 23:14 GMT

Free whitepaper – Secure and managed file transfer In the era of  
regulatory compliance

Three cybersecurity groups said Tuesday they plan to band together to  
combat the growing scourge of malware.

The Anti-Spyware Coalition, National Cyber Security Alliance, and  
StopBadware.org said the Chain of Trust Initiative will link together  
vendors, researchers, government agencies, network providers, and  
other groups involved in internet security. The members said they want  
to establish a united front against malware suppliers in much the way  
groups coalesced to successfully fight providers of adware several  
years ago.

"Organization and collaboration are out best tools against an enemy  
that doesn't play by any rules," StopBadware.org's manager, Maxim  
Weinstein, said in a statement announcing the alliance. "Just by  
nature of how the internet works, malware distributors have a  
technological advantage, but we can respond by strengthening our  
shared networks and by better understanding our shared  
responsibilities."

Maybe so, but it's clear that the participants have their work cut  
out. While the groups are looking to the the success the ASC, or Anti- 
Spyware Coalition, had in the past few years driving Gator, Zango and  
other adware and spyware purveyors out of business, fighting malware  
crooks will be a different thing altogether. Unlike most of the adware  
pushers, malware organizations don't tend to be legal entities located  
in the US.

The pressure exerted by the previous coalition forced adware vendors  
"to decide whether to become legitimate players in the  
marketplace...or go completely to the dark side," Ari Schwartz, the  
ASC's coordinator and vice president of the Center for Democracy and  
Technology, said, according to IDG News. Certainly, Schwartz must  
already know that malware distributors have dwelled on the dark side  
for years now.

It's also a little unclear what concrete tasks the new group plans to  
undertake. Tuesday's announcement says it will "lead the mapping  
effort and jointly develop ideas and initiatives to form stronger  
bonds between links on the chain." Is that a fancy way of saying it  
plans to figure out what its next step will be?

The group says it will release a "paper tracking the results of the  
mapping project and proposed initial recommendations to strengthen the  
chain." ®