Melih Abdulhayoğlu: genius, madman, or just purporting another cloud scanner?

[Simion]

Please restrict your comments to DACS (Distributed and Collaborative Scanning).

http://www.melih.com/2010/12/23/anti-virus-companies-are-protecting-criminals-not-anymore-thanks-to-dacs/

http://forums.comodo.com/news-announcements-feedback-cis/dacs-released-distributed-and-collaborative-scanning-t66827.0.html

[sded]

Or try http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=289508 for less raving and more information.  Self aggrandization is just a way of life.

[bob3160]

Sounds like another white elephant but it appears to be sugar coated with the Comodo flavor so it must be good. 

[Simion]

Or try http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=289508 for less raving and more information.  Self aggrandization is just a way of life.

Thank you for the link, sded. TU I do use CIS 2011 for zero day protection, and have noticed a trend of Comodo using users as bots. Not good, IMO.

[Lisandro]

Seems an on demand & cloud system.
The only unknown thing for me is

If there is an unknown file in your computer then this gets sent to DACS community, the community scans it with their anti virus products and send the result back to you! Of course all this is done automatically

The community scans... You mean... Will I download a file and locally scan, returning (uploading) the results to the community?

[Source: http://www.melih.com/2010/12/23/anti-virus-companies-are-protecting-criminals-not-anymore-thanks-to-dacs/].

[GloobyGoob]

@ Tech, Melih stated that DACS is more like P2P rather than cloud-based. Maybe this might help to understand the concept better. It seems that only the contributors scan the files. Normal CIS users just send the unknown files. Melih mentioned a "strict" qualification process in order to become a contributor, because they don't need any more.

A user using CIS will find an unknown file....
CIS passes it to DACS component...
DACS then sends it out to all other DACS contributors....
DACS contributors scan and send the result back to the user..

A DACS contributor has a software that he/she uses to work along with their AV product.

Why is this innovation?
its NOT a cloud based system per se.. its a p2p kind of system...
If you were to run a server based system, then you would require AV companies approval. But in a p2p environment, a user scanning a file then informing the community does not require the approval of the AV company. There is nothing stopping a user from saying: hey this file is not good.

source

GG

[sded]

Even though this is only an on demand system, isn't the sending of the file to all of the supporters repeated for each user who sees the unknown file as it evolves?  And doesn't the user finding it in the first place require that he do regular on-demand scans?  Since it is not an on access item, utility seems a bit limited.  The lack of a Prevx-like data center seems a real disadvantage.

[GloobyGoob]

Even though this is only an on demand system, isn't the sending of the file to all of the supporters repeated for each user who sees the unknown file as it evolves?  And doesn't the user finding it in the first place require that he do regular on-demand scans?  Since it is not an on access item, utility seems a bit limited.  The lack of a Prevx-like data center seems a real disadvantage.

I'm not sure whether its on-demand or on-access... This post by Melih in one of the threads, makes it seem like DACS is on-access and automatic.

Edit: Pretty sure its on-access now. Post

GG

[Lisandro]

Melih mentioned a "strict" qualification process in order to become a contributor, because they don't need any more.

Strict? Is it only that the computer will be "available" for them to scan? I mean, download file, scan, upload results?

Its a p2p kind of system...

The smaller network, the more files you need to scan locally to upload the results...

[GloobyGoob]

This is what Melih said in his post:

There is a very strict qualification process for the contributors. Because we want to make sure what is fed to the community is nothing but the best about the scan results. We don't want some "upset" people/companies to come be a contributor and start feeding false results. And also there really isn't a need for anymore than a handful number of people which we already have got..

Source

GG

[sded]

In the Wilders thread, Lord Raiden definitely said it was an on demand scanner although the text has been massaged a few times.  Current quote is "DACS does not provide real time protection so it can not replace any AV".  He has been asking questions over at the Comodo forum and sometimes getting vague answers, but this one seems solid.  Context was about the size and bandwidth of an on access network like this that doesn't go through a data center-even Prevx has a whole lot of dedicated equipment.  Seems like there is confusion at all levels though.  Another quote is "Will be added to Comodo Internet Security in future versions but first will be avaliable on-demand as a standalone app" but questions about that don't seem to be answered-it is a much bigger deal.

[Lisandro]

But questions about that don't seem to be answered-it is a much bigger deal.

Wait one month, let's the things calm down and we'll see what it is.
Right now, hype hype hype...

[Hermite15]

restrict our comments to "DACS" or whatever the thing is called and means ? no way. That's too typical from Comodo to "sell" or attempt to sell empty stuff, they've been at that a few times already, so... anyway I already commented on that here:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=68142.msg573288#msg573288

ps: if you guys over there at Comodo's don't want to hear comments that you don't like, you don't have to come post about your internal cooking here. That's not interesting, but I admit to have fun

[Hard_ROCKER]

@Logos: You might want to quote that post of yours since it's in the Café... Not everybody has access to that.

[Hermite15]

@Logos: You might want to quote that post of yours since it's in the Café... Not everybody has access to that.

 oh okay didn't realize that lol

yeah, and it's never been mentioned either that these cloud features in 5.1 and 6.0 would ever use "extra AV engines" . I can't honestly see anything in the development of Avast that would remind me of this Comodo "duck" Melih wants to save the world once again, is being demagogic  ( http://bit.ly/f5YkwD ), and quacks like a... "DAC"  

 This said, AV companies may have agreements with VirusTotal for instance, while they sure don't with Comodo, and I wouldn't be surprised in a near future to hear that they've been sued for copyright infringement. Comodo is relying on the fact that "supposedly", an AV company doesn't own the output of its scans, and the fact that the end user in the DACS procedure will have to allow the scan (by other AV engines)... lol...this is what Melih will tell the court : "users allowed the scans to happen, not Comodo"  

edit: can't leave that without adding that Comodo may have finally found something to save its AV reputation, use the products from other companies This is despicable.