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# Antivirus Paradox
# Antivirus Paradox (Perverse incentive)
{ I think this paradox must have had another established name even before antiviruses, but I wasn't able to find anything. If you know it, let me know. ~drummyfish }
{ Thanks to an anon who informed me about the correct name of this phenomenon <3 ~drummyfish }
Antivirus paradox is the paradox of someone who's job it is to eliminate certain undesirable phenomenon actually having an interest in keeping this phenomenon existing so as to keep his [job](work.md). A typical example is an [antivirus](antivirus.md) company having an interest in the existence of dangerous [viruses](virus.md) and [malware](malware.md) so as to keep their business running; in fact antivirus companies themselves secretly create and release viruses and malware.
Antivirus paradox (also *perverse incentive* or *cobra effect*) is the paradox of someone who's job it is to eliminate certain undesirable phenomenon actually having an interest in keeping this phenomenon existing so as to keep his [job](work.md). A typical example is an [antivirus](antivirus.md) company having an interest in the existence of dangerous [viruses](virus.md) and [malware](malware.md) so as to keep their business running; in fact antivirus companies themselves secretly create and release viruses and malware. The name cobra effect comes from a story in which government started to pay rewards for dead cobras in order to eliminate their numbers, which resulted in people actually breeding cobras to make more [money](money.md).
Cases of said behavior are common, e.g. the bind-torture-kill serial killer used to work as a seller of home security alarms who installed alarms for people who were afraid of being invaded by the bind-torture-killer, and then used his knowledge of the alarms to break into the houses -- a typical capitalist business. It is also a known phenomenon that many firefighters are passionate arsonists because society simply praises them for [fighting](fight_culture.md) fires (as opposed to rewarding them for the lack of fires).