Thread by @vmyths

🧵
"#Antivirus software is a future Trojan horse."

There. I said it.

"But Rob! You were defending Kaspersky just a few days ago!"

NO.

I've fought a crude #UrbanLegend in our industry that's simmered since the FBI threw a shit-fit over something they've never proven.

Worse, our own global community has never proved it -- and we've got every good reason to prove it if true.

But hey, our industry turned the tables on Kaspersky the day his dictator launched a genocide campaign.

Because we're just like that. We've always been like that.

That's why our industry's #ThoughtLeaders can dance on a pinhead: because IT'S EASY!

The logic in the back of their minds is simple: "Kaspersky is a Russian billionaire who craves genocide in Ukraine and does anything Putin asks. I must destroy Kaspersky with all my willpower."

But there's a catch:

Collectively, our industry has a #fetish for military cosplay. We brag from one side of our mouth and scream in terror from the other side at just how easily we can snuff the lives of thousands, even millions of humans with nary the press of an ENTER key.

When the time actually comes where the global #cybersecurity community can kill someone they don't know with the push of a button…

…a terrifying number of us will DO it. Because we've fantasized about it for far, far too long. But at what cost to us?

Honestly, the cost to us is stated simply:

1️⃣ You push a button

2️⃣ People you don't know, die

3️⃣ You scour the news for stories & videos of the tragedy

4️⃣ You #incredulously ask yourself "wow, did I honestly kill all those men, women, and children?"

Okay, and … then what?

This is where logic will deviate from psychology.

Logic tells us the killers will brag from one side of their mouth and scream in terror from the other side at just how easily they snuffed the lives of thousands, even millions of humans with nary the press of an ENTER key…

…but psychology tells us the newfound killers in our industry will regret murdering newborns. And kids. And off-duty first responders. Annnnnd pretty much everyone else they killed.

And so the newfound killers in our industry will do what a lot of…

…killers in the military go through when they see the carnage they wrought:

They'll *change*. Because of course they will.

As for me? I'm just waiting for the day #antivirus software turns into a Trojan horse. That's when our #fetish will lead us to the coming reality.

Nobody has proven anything against Kaspersky. I'll defend Eugene and Costin and all the rest for this reason alone.

But I also know the future.

Some day, McAfee or WithSecure or Kaspersky or whoever WILL decide it's in their corporate best interests…