Research into future security threats is not always taken kindly by all members of the anti-virus community. Understanding the bounds of security research is important, however, when there is an increasing emphasis on proactive rather than reactive defences.We look at the question of how far security research can go in terms of looking at future threats, and how this research is conducted. Our analysis addresses technical, ethical, and legal issues. The hope is that this will provoke a meaningful discussion on future threat research within the anti-virus community.