Why Join?
There are lots of reasons to join the AVIEWS, including: Global Coverage - Current subscribers include major organizations representing more than 5 million PCs around the world. From the start in November 2000, they consistently have known about and defended against new malware (viruses, worms, bandwidth-hogging holiday-ware) in many cases faster than the alerts sent out by traditional alerting mechanisms. Why? Because the people on the front lines who are affected are talking to each other, when an hour can make a big difference.
Alerts and Advisories - Not only do we send out alerts, but we also inform each other about suspicious incidents before they explode into real alert-type situations. For example, the Homepage.vbs malware was being discussed by AVI-EWS subscribers the day before it made its mark on the world. This has been the pattern for all major outbreaks.
The AVI-EWS is entirely subscriber-driven and not designed to replace existing alert services from commercial security organizations. It acts as a supplementary source of information on fast-breaking threats. Alerts are generated by subscribers; detailed analysis is normally provided by their security software vendors or other alerting services with analysis capabilities. Many of these alerting services are subscribers to AVI-EWS - they too want to be in on the fast-breaking action.
"For the first time ever, I know about some viruses before the vendors do. This enables me to devise defense strategies which stop the viruses dead in their tracks, even before our vendors can publish new definition files."
-- Paul L. Schmehl, Supervisor, Support Services, The University of Texas at Dallas |
Peer Discussions - Once you subscribe to the AVI-EWS, you get access to the virus-discussion mailing list, where you can discuss viruses with top Anti-Virus specialists. You also get access to a discussion list on all malware topics. An important factor to remember is that discussions are always at a professional level - no flames are allowed. See the rules for more information. If you meet the membership criteria, you may also be invited to join the Anti-Virus Information Exchange Network (AVIEN) and participate in their discussion groups on managing enterprise-level malware defenses. AVIEN is a dynamic grassroots group with real discussions on the important issues of malware. Unlike most newsgroups and public mailing lists, the information exchanged amongst members is of consistently high value (except for the donut conversations...).
Savings - Estimates of current subscribers are that the first time they received a heads-up on a new virus or other malware that was spreading, it saved them hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in avoided downtime.
AVIEWS Subscribers receive several mailing lists that cover many topics, including Viruses, Hoaxes, Phishing, Trojans, Vulnerabilities, AV testing, and all sorts of other malware related issues, as well as the highly regarded Early Warning system alerts and advisories. |
