AVID is an acronym for Anti-Virus Is Dead.

The unashamed goal of the AVID campaign is to reduce the role of AV technology to a minimal level, replacing it with technology that actually works.

AV technology is based primarily upon the idea that making signatures of known viruses and comparing them to the signatures of executables on a PC (or other computer) is a sensible approach to stopping malware. It isn’t. In particular this approach is utterly useless against zero-day threats. You can enhance this capability by adding routines that detect “suspicious” executable behavior – and some AV vendors do. This improves matters a little, but it is still inadequate.

This campaign began accidentally. I posted a piece with the following title:

Come in, Antivirus Software, your time is up!

I expected that someone from amongst the AV vendors would argue the point, but surprisingly they stayed silent to a man. At least some of them knew I’d written the posting – because this blog is widely read – and, as far as I could tell, they didn’t dare to respond. So I decided to turn it into a campaign.

There is a single unashamed reason for this campaign. It is referred in a light-hearted way in the posting:

10 Reasons Why The Black Hats Have Us Outgunned

But it is deadly serious. The epidemic of criminal activity on the Internet is enabled to a huge degree by the ineffectiveness of security technology which really ought to be a damn sight better. The only way we’re likely to impinge upon it is to replace what’s broken. My suggestion is:

THROW AV TECHNOLOGY AWAY!

The strategy for the AVID campaign was to write blog postings every few weeks that advanced the argument against AV technology on a piece by piece basis. This has created a constant drum beat which is difficult to ignore.

Here are all the AVID postings made so far – in chronological order:
Come in AntiVirus Software, Your Time Is Up
More On AntiVirus (By Popular Demand)
Anti-Virus Is Dead
The AntiVirus League of Shame
Shame Again on the AV Vendors
The AntiVirus Vulnerability Gap
The Decline of AntiVirus: A Trend in Motion
AntiVirus Vendors: the Barkless Dog
The AV Vendors’ Track Record
Close But No Cigar
AntiVirus: An Ex-Technology
Savant Protection: A New Whitelisting Company
Stupidity Squared – from the AV Vendors
Microsoft Almost Making Sense of AV Technology
The AntiVirus Overhead
An Anti-Virus Information Disorder
White Paper on The Ineffectiveness of AV Technology
Microsoft AV and the Allchin Stumble
AV and Vista on the Verge
Will it be an AVID New Year?
The Code Red Kid: Virus Control in the Wild West
Why Anti-Virus Profiling is Inadequate
Why It’s Over for the AntiVirus Industry
AV Vendors Embarassed Again
The Rise of Whitelisting and the Decline of AntiVirus
The Slow Demise of AV Technology
Apple Ignores AV Vendors on iPhone
Bouncer: Going Beyond Whitelisting
Why Is It That Many AV Vendors Simply Don’t Get It?