"We found no novel techniques or patterns used in this malware," Kaspersky continued in an entry titled on his personal blog. "What we did find were striking shortcomings that reveal the authors' low level of programming skill and lack of basic web security knowledge."

This wasn't the first time Kaspersky's company criticized its rival. Three weeks ago, Kaspersky and other security firms .

Kaspersky also claimed that the Shady RAT attacks originated from a long-known botnet, and cited McAfee for "crying wolf."

"But [we] decided not to ring any alarm bells due to its very low proliferation.... It has never been on the list of the most widespread threats," said Kaspersky. "For years now, the industry has adopted the simple and helpful rule of not crying wolf."

That implied accusation got a reaction out of McAfee.