Hi DavidR,
I see that in a complete different light, excuse my French.
Don't you see what a brilliant move by avast tech lab this is really? Speculation of course, on my part,
but think like the lines of this likely scenario...
See this in the light of the latest developments round the total banning from American
(or maybe later French) government computers of Kaspersky's AV software etc.
No one does any talking anymore about the NSA's agent's stupidity of taking a work-laptop home
and have it accessed by Kaspersky's regular av (and later those files were checked on by FSB folk accordingly)?
Then NSA lashed out through Kaspersky against Russian sp**ks.
The action served two goals a protectionistic and political one.
It is the American mentality of "the winner takes it all".
Come wind or high water, supported either with just or false arguments, you always have to win,
else you will stand out like a miserable looser.
And they always need a bogeyman to blame it all on, when something goes wrong.
In this case again it was the "Ruzzians", so do not afford these forces any playground against you.
If Kaspersky had done the same brilliant move but earlier, they certainly were in less of a predicament as they are in now, experiencing their "Shmita" days. They could have blamed an "open source scan" of sorts or open software for it.
Now it was inside their labs and through their labs and out of their labs.
Did you ever hear of the days of "Attainment" laws in the USA of the fifties anti-commie days. Such days could return as the going gets narrow there nowadays. Good avast is already fully stationed and positioned there.
polonus