Everywhere I turned online yesterday, there was conversation surrounding the Malwarebytes blog post, in which they have very publicly accused IObit of stealing their proprietary database(s). It’s being talked about in blogs, on forums, via newsletters and news sites, and within private mailing lists. People chatted about this on IRC, and fights were instigated on various forums as to the validity of the claim.

Malwarebytes, of course, is stating that IObit outright stole their work. IObit claims that it was perhaps an accident. People everywhere are speculating on where the truth lies. Is the MBAM team on target? Are the people at IObit victims of one person’s mistake? Is the reality perhaps somewhere in between?

Being a part of the anti-malware community for so many years has afforded me the opportunity to make a heck of a lot of contacts, connections and friends. I have heard so many possible variations as to what could have happened in the past 24 hours that it makes my head spin. There are speculations, accusations and rumors. Fingers are being pointed – at BOTH sides. How, then, are we supposed to know exactly what is going on? How do we sift through the noise to get at the crux of the information?

The point I am trying to make in my own roundabout way is that not a single one of us can possibly guess as to the full truth of this unfortunate situation. I also don’t feel it is our “place” to attempt to do so. We are the community who is going to be deeply affected by whatever outcome there may be in this eventually. We have suffered so many setbacks over the years at the hands of the malware writers. I personally feel very strongly that we should not allow this situation to set us back any further. We need to go on about the business of removing malware, and let this play out where it belongs – in the courts. It shouldn’t be fought in the press, nor on forums, and not even on our own blogs. It should be handled professionally, with courtesy and tact, by Malwarebytes and IObit.