The Triple-Layer Antivirus 'Solution'
Description
A four-panel stick-figure comic with a light blue background depicting a conversation between two IT workers. In the first panel, one worker sits at a desk and sighs loudly, while a colleague holding a green mug asks, 'What's up?'. In the second panel, the seated worker explains, 'Customer just put in a ticket...their system keeps locking up with high CPU spikes and slowness. They think they've been 'hacked' and they are not happy...'. The standing colleague responds, 'Hurm..Sounds AV-ish...Which antivirus are they using?'. In the third panel, the seated worker replies, 'Trend, McAfee and Symantec.', and when the other asks, '.....on the same-', he confirms, 'Yep.'. In the final panel, the colleague with the mug suggests, 'Tell them to wear three condoms the next time they have sex and let us know how it works out.' The seated worker thinks to himself, 'If I didn't value my job...'. This comic mocks a classic IT support scenario where a user, in an attempt to be more secure, installs multiple antivirus programs on the same machine. This action, rather than providing layered protection, creates massive resource conflicts, leading to the exact performance issues the user is reporting. The joke highlights the gap between user intention and technical reality, a common source of frustration for support staff
Comments
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Running three antivirus suites is the technical equivalent of hiring three project managers for a two-person team. The overhead doesn't triple the protection; it just guarantees nothing actually gets done
Installing Trend, McAfee, and Symantec on one box isn’t “defense-in-depth,” it’s Byzantine consensus - three processes pegging the CPU while endlessly accusing each other of being the traitor
The same executive who insisted on running three antivirus programs for "maximum protection" just approved a multi-cloud strategy with Kubernetes orchestrators in AWS, Azure, and GCP because "we can't put all our eggs in one basket."
The classic 'defense in depth' strategy taken to its logical extreme - because nothing says 'secure system' like three antivirus programs fighting each other for kernel-level hooks while your CPU begs for mercy. It's the enterprise equivalent of hiring three security guards who spend all day arguing about who's in charge while the building burns down. At least when the system finally crashes, you'll have three different vendors to blame
Running Trend, McAfee, and Symantec together isn’t security; it’s a Byzantine quorum that elects 100% CPU as leader
Installing Trend, McAfee, and Symantec on one box isn’t defense-in-depth - it’s a self‑inflicted DDoS where three kernel drivers race to intercept the same syscall
Symantec's full scans: the only thing turning your optimized fleet into a COBOL-era timeshare faster than legacy middleware