Conspiracy theories claiming antivirus vendors create malware to drive sales are generally dismissed by industry experts as illogical, citing high risks to reputation, legal status, and the massive, organic volume of daily threats. While these specific claims are often unfounded, actual security incidents, such as data privacy violations and software vulnerabilities, have fueled legitimate public distrust in some vendors. For an analysis of these theories, visit ESET . AV Companies and Malware Conspiracy Theories - ESET