Crying wolf over viruses

I've said it before, and the San Francisco Chronicle picks up on it today: anti-virus software vendors are hyping up every passing half-idea for a virus in the hope it'll panic more people into buying their software. You'll notice from the timeline on the link above that the Code Red drama played out in late silly season - sorry, July - last year, and we're entering that time again, so you can expect the rate of hysterical virus warnings to pick up again soon. In whipping up this storm, the vendors run the risk of making us all so cynical about their warnings we blithely ignore them next time there really is something to shout about. Check out VMyths if you want an antidote to all this virus madness.