The Good Ol' Antivirus is Dead??

According to the Wall Street Journal, Symantec has declared antivirus software dead.  Woah!  That's a pretty strong claim, especially considering that Symantec is attributed the invention of commercial antivirus software.

What's the problem?

Basically, that they got tired of the endless mouse-catching game antivirus is in.  We have to face the truth: malware is usually a step (or many) ahead of antivirus software.

Thus, what they will be doing now is assuming that the computers are compromised to then try to minimize the damage.

This forces us to make a series of interesting observations:

1.  No matter the antivirus you use, your computer will be eventually assimilated into a cyber criminal's network.

Now, this observation is seriously flawed.  First, the main problem is not the computer; it is the OS.  Guess which OS are they talking about (without saying it, of course)?      

2.  If companies will focus on minimizing potential damages caused by malware, that means some damage will have to be done first.

No, it doesn't necessarily mean that, right?  It is about distracting criminals with fake information and knowing how and why they enter a specific computer network.

Well, maybe they could figure out ideas for tightening security so that damages do not occur.  But what does "tightening security" mean?

Maybe  adding new features to their software to help the user?

And why not going a step beyond that and we add features to the hardware, too?

Yes!  We could have something called "Secure" Boot enabled by default "to prevent" breaches!  The problem is that the so called "Secure" boot has never been secure in the first place.  I've seen how computers with that and running Windows 8 have been easily hijacked but not so easily fixed.

Also, "Secure" (I always prefer to call it "restricted") boot is causing a much greater damage than those it seeks to prevent: now you can't even control your hardware but others can.  You pay for hardware and others are the ones who can actually use it.  Of course, they have your best interests at heart.   

Of course, there are alternatives to this.  Why not using a safer OS to begin with?  That could create a truly competitive market that would force Microsoft to get their act together and actually design a secure OS.  Will that be Windows 10, maybe?