[quote='Fursphere',index.php?page=Thread&postID=159 475#post159475]You gota realize most virus/trojan/hacker "alerts" come from (guess who) - people who sell anti-virus / anti-spyware programs.

Mcafee and Symantec are the biggest offenders I think, with Trend not far behind.[/quote]While I am all about the corporate conspiracy's and the general media trying to fear us into trusting them, this particular statement is far from true.
Most virus/trojan/hacker "alerts" come from independent security researchers, collegiate researchers, and yes, believe it or not, software manufacturers in-house security research teams.
McAffe and Symantic do in fact have their own software security researchers, but most of the stuff they do come from outside sources.

Keep an eye on sites like the three I posted above, [url='http://isc.sans.org/']SANS[/url], US-CERT, and even DarkNet is a good source of independent research and security issues