AVG is evil and it must be stopped!

In an attempt to provide a more secure web environment, Grisoft, the creator of the free antivirus software AVG, has provided a way for its product to check websites for malware. When you type your information into the text box of a search engine, AVG will inspect the first page of sites displayed to see if they contain malware. If no malware is found, AVG annotates the site with a green star adorned with a check mark. A yellow icon with an exclamation point is identified as a questionable site; a red "X" indicates an evil site, and a gray icon with a question mark is a site that AVG cannot search. Slashdot, one of my favorite websites, has blocked AVG from scanning.

The biggest complaint that I have seen about this new feature is that it has increased web traffic. Those webmasters who are trying to analyze web traffic are having fits trying to sort out real website requests from those initiated by AVG. They are even going so far as to redirect the requests back to AVG in order to "teach them a lesson." This has resulted in the AVG site being unavailable for signature file updates. This seemed like a great idea some webmasters. Let's block people from getting the virus signature files so their computers become infected. What a service you are providing to humanity!

Having just spent several hours on the phone and using remote desktop to clean my father-in-law's computer in Pensacola, Florida, of nasty malware/spyware, I can tell you I welcome this new rating system. I have tried to explain to him that there is a right way to download software from the Internet and there is a wrong way but he is not the computer expert he needs to be to protect himself. So if there is an additional way to indicate to him that there is malicious intent associated with a website, I welcome it. Webmasters should reconsider their attempts to circumvent the efforts of AVG. Those of us in the computer security field recognize that additional security inhibits productivity initially, but in the long run the time and energy it takes to counteract the effects of malware will be lessened if not eliminated.