The Man Who Debunks Viruses

Miscellaneous

from the an-important-man-to-know dept

A few years ago, while searching for some information about some computer virus that was making news, I came across Rob Rosenberger’s site. At the time, it was just a directory off of his personal website, though, now it’s got it’s own domain at vmyths.com. He was very clear about what he was doing (debunking virus hype sent out by biased corporations who make money by scaring everyone about viruses). A few weeks after that someone sent me a virus warning, and I immediately went to his page. There wasn’t any info there, so I sent it to him. A day or so later he wrote back a nice note thanking me, and confirming my opinion that the virus was a joke. Ever since then, his site is the first one I go to whenever I hear about some virus being hyped – and he always strips through the hype (something that we like very much here at Techdirt). I never knew very much about Rosenberger, but now, Wired is running an an interesting profile about him. Some interesting facts: he has CIA security clearance (though he won’t say why) and refuses to accept any advertising from companies in the security industry (to avoid bias).