Report: Kaspersky developed malware to trip up competition
Ron Czapala
Posts: 2,418
http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/14/report-kaspersky-developed-malware-to-trip-up-competition/
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
Reuters reports that a pair of former employees have accused Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs of building malware to trick its competition into flagging and quarantining important, non-viral, files on customers' computers. Basically the malware would inject malicious bits of code into important PC files -- like, say, your printer's .ini files -- which would then be flagged as a false positive and quarantined or deleted.
Comments
I've often wondered if something like this was going on, and even mentioned it a time or two on the forum. If it is happening I guess that would make computer users collateral damage in the market share wars.
This would not be the first time a virus scanner has crippled machines. 15 years ago most of the PC in the office I worked at were rendered unbootable over the lunch break by a virus scan following a Windows update. Something in the update looked bad and the virus scanner "fixed" it.
All this makes any such accusations as made here seem quite plausible no matter how true or false they are.
I won't speculate on this case but personally I would not want to be giving admin privileges to my machine to any software originating from Moscow any more than I would that coming from Redmond.
How can we know what they get up to ?
Norton seems to have tried to make it impossible to switch to another product without a huge systems upset and caused a political backlash called "Kill Norton". That nasty caused serious crashes to my own XP when I tried to install System Mechanic (much cheaper and more honest).
http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallnorton.shtml
This is what happens when sales growth is driven by fear.
Solution --- Dump Windows and use an OS that doesn't feed their greed. (or you can now use Microsoft's own free AV and never give another dime those thieves)
The apex of all this nonsense was marked by the Church of Scientology getting into the business with Panda AV.
Microsoft happily partnered with some of these bandits for years. And for Windows applications within Linux, Linux offer its own free AV called Clam AV.
I always start out with, "Can we remove this software?".
"WHAT? I just paid $80 for it!"
This is why I'm starting a robotics company. Screw viruses and spyware and computers and servers and VPNs and all that other Smile, not to mention peripherals and partition resize on a Friday night. Can you tell how much I love my job?
There are other alternatives -- just service Apple systems.
Ironically, after all these years -- it seems that I can now finally install my licensed WindowsXP and actually get it to run right... just because Windows is no longer attempting constant updates, and there are good anti-virus applications for free.
It also helps that Microsoft and Apple are no longer fighting. Back then I tried to use both MS and Apple versions of media player to teach English (the BBC liked what Apple offered, and other news media were loyal to MS), but one or the other constantly attempted to damage and remove the competitor.
I see there are independent websites that are providing downloads of the service packs for XP.
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So now that I have moved on and it is 15 years later, the OS just might work well.
Not the kind of computers I normally work with. Certainly not as many!
No doubt different computers. But everything is being hacked today, your PC, your server, your phone, the micro-controllers in your car, electronic hotel door locks...
Now we have the rising tide of the "Internet of Things", the problems with security in that arena are going to be interesting:)
And remember the good old stuxnet. A wonderful hack into PLC's via personal computers that were not even network connected!
Hence my question. Unless your robots have no computer you are still in the world of "viruses and spyware and computers and servers and VPNs". Perhaps even more so.
The demand in 'supply and demand' can either be demand for something that everyone wants or demand for something everyone wants to get rid of.
So if you can make good money cleaning up other people's messes and getting rid of there problems, your enterprise is doing well.
Garbage-men and plumbers know very well that they have excellent job security. You just need to find clients that are willing to pay more and complain less. Every service business has to sort out their better clientèle from those that don't appreciate what they are getting.
Perhaps you need to just train your customers that you generally want 48 hours to resolve the problem unless they want to pay a premium for rush services. It is frustrating to have people walk in and demand an immediate turn around of an hour or two and then complain that you did so little. It is also hard to think clearly and provide quality service if one is always under pressure and watchful eyes.
Teach a community college class in personal computer security and care to build up your reputation and to get the cheap customers to learn what they can do to avoid having to pay you. You will end up with a lot of more good customers via word of mouth.
@Loopy Byteloose - Sounds like you've been there! Exactly right, I have done some of the things you mentioned too.
@Loopy_Byteloose ?
@Loopy%20Byteloose ?
The dark side of the internet is ubiquitous. The least bit of fame and someone tries to tag along and exploit. I have no idea where @Loopy or @Loopy_Byteloose came from... possibly hostile robotic code cloning Parallax identities.
First and foremost, any protection scheme needs to be simple and easy to maintain for it to work.
A. Keeping a computer connected to the internet 24/7 creates an attractive target...especially if it has servers.
B. Using one mail box identity to login to all and everything on the internet is unmanageable.... have at least 3 accounts and try to have all provide SPAM filtering services and virus scanning. I use only one for my most private stuff - on-line banking and such, another for the general use that needs a good spam filter, and the one provided by my ISP that I almost never use and hold in reserve for emergencies. Maybe I have 4 or 5 or 6, I am not telling the world.
When I do get mail I dislike and that worries me, I can see right away what the degree of threat is. HotMail, Yahoo, and Google offer email accounts that have Span filters, virus scanning and at least attempt to shield you from identity theft. And beware, your internet service provider may feel that your protection is your private concern. So there are advantages to using HotMail, Yahoo and Google for high hazard stuff.
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I still get hostile attacks from time to time through email or browser. But being in Linux, the attacks seem absurd. There attempt to download and install a .exe file which Linux immediate refuses to execute. But a .exe file is just harmless and easily deleted in Linux... wrong format.
But one can't get complacent. It seems Android (which is a Linux derivative) has become the target of increasing successful exploits.
I do admit I live in Asia where this junk is ever present. So I have to take more precautions. And I still get those silly Nigerian scam letters after all these years. If anything, we have to teach our children, friends, and family that there will always be someone trying to run a scam on them. Beware of too friendly, too compelling, or too good to be true.
Sadly, I find I even have trouble finding a vet for my elderly mutt that it is not trying to scam my compassion and love for the beast with dire predictions and expensive remedies. And then there are the dentists that load me with unneeded guilt about flossing and brushing.
Yes, one should never be complacent regarding security issues. Just because ones OS of choice has few problems with viruses, trojans and other exploits does not mean they are not possible and will not come some day. See recent problems with SSL. Security is an on going process.
And of course, Kaspersky is more than willing to sell their snake oil for Android as well....
https://usa.kaspersky.com/internet-security-center/threats/mobile#.VdCCX9cyrMU
I can hear the Money Tree shaking...
But there have been other credible warnings of serious Android exploits that make me uncomfortable.
When your internet device begins making you wonder "Who can I trust?", it is best to minimize your exposure.
I suppose it depends on whether you mean the generic "Linux" as in any OS that uses a Linux kernel, or "Linux" as in the actual Linux kernel itself.
One can run Android and it's apps on Windows phones, so I suggest Android is no derivative of Linux:
http://wmpoweruser.com/are-you-ready-for-android-apps-on-windows-phone/
Android is more a derivative of Java than anything else. In fact Oracle and Google have been having legal disputes over that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_America,_Inc._v._Google,_Inc. Java of course intended to be cross-platform and independent of any kernel or OS. Frikken no one any more!
The other day some new face in our company suggested we use some collaboration tool, I forget it's name now, a good idea as we have developers all around the planet. On trying to use this thing I find it has a extension for the Chrome browser, "great" I thought I can use it on Linux and Mac as well. On trying to install said extension I'm asked if I want to allow this thing full access to my browser history and a few other things it has no need to know anything about. Cancel that idea.
Well, great, if that tool catches on with my colleagues I'm going to be out of a job for refusing to install it and thus being unable to collaborate with them!
http://www.howtogeek.com/189036/android-is-based-on-linux-but-what-does-that-mean/
That is certainly a possible solution. It's very annoying though. We already have a bunch of VM images here for running all kind of things, not necessarily security/privacy related. I hate juggling them all.
Thing is a web browser is already a very good sand box. Allowing code to run, with many limitations and restrictions, such that it cannot do many things that a native app can. This is true of the old Java Applets and even more true of Javascript now a days.
Then we have this collaboration app (Still can't recall it's name). It runs as a Chrome extension. I assume therefore it is written in Javascript as Chrome extensions are.
Ergo, it could work just as well as normal web app. The only possible reason it is pushed out as a Chrome extension then is to bypass all those normal restrictions of normal JS in a web page. I.e. to get access to your data, browser history etc etc,
Should I go out of my way to wrap another sand box around this or just say "no, this is insane".
At risk of finding myself out of a job I'm old and ugly enough to do the later.
I have an ongoing saga with a support contract from a medical software vendor. They use TeamViewer and persistent connections. It's nice they can remote into our servers when needed. The problem is the persistent connection app gives anyone on any of the servers access to all of the support companies persistent connections. You're one password away from any of their servers, as are the remote people from your servers. You can also get machine info and see who is online, etc. Whose idea was that?
I don't get it, and I'm pretty sure they don't either. Maybe TeamViewer is $5 a month cheaper.
Ah yes, for many years I was a freelance contractor. It was great to be able to do interesting and useful jobs for companies, large and small, and not have to be subject to all the in house company rules and in house politics. Make the deal, man to man, face to face. You want the job done? Great this is how I can do it for you. Any hassle or impediment and I'm out of here.
Amazingly that never actually happened in all those years. Many of those guys called me back for more.
At some point I lost my nerve and took a "real job". Well...it goes down hill after that...
Perhaps it's time to man up and lay down the rules. What could possibly go wrong? Sleeping under bridges is not so bad
Let the only diversion be erco's ebay deals. It's much better to hoard parts and components and buck converters and 3-digit LED digital DC voltmeters and small shiny blue circuit boards populated with electronics, than our endless bickering about the non-virtues of our various necessary evils that are our computing appliances. None of us came to this forum with that as a purpose, I believe.
-Tor
You're right Tor. Back to work!
What's up?
For the most part we cannot use a Propeller without a means of editing programs on a PC and programming the Prop from a PC. At that point an operating system on said PC is required and whatever tools for the Prop have to be usable from that operating system.
Ergo, operating systems are not just of "peripheral relevance" to Propellers. They are pretty central. Remember the dark ages when one only had the PropTool, Windows only?
Certainly many have come here in order to find out how to use a Prop from this operating system or that.
I love erco's ebay finds as much as anyone here. May they continue.
Of course, with all due respect, if you are not interested in "Win this" or "linux that" or in this case " Kaspersky whatever" it's much quicker and easier to just not read the thread than to take time to read it then compose a post on it!
On the other hand, yes, I'd love to see more project action going on as well.