[pchelpers] antispyware and antivirus response times to new spyware - part 1
- From: "Ekhart GEORGI (last name last)" <Ekhart.GEORGI@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pchelpers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:42:10 +0300
(resending; testing the Freelists filter by sending (updated) first part
only)
I've discovered some very interesting things concerning the response
times of various antispyware and antivirus programs to a new major and
aggressive spyware threat. AntiVirGear was apparently first detected by
SUPERAntiSpyware on Sept. 12th as shown here:
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=105544
It was apparently the first or second dedicated antispyware to do so,
but Kaspersky, Symantec, and FSecure (antivirus or suites is unclear)
were already detecting it then.
(www.dslreports.com/forum/r19062542-AntiVirGearcom-New-Rogue-AntiSpyware)
Interestingly, Secunia didn't hear and report about it until the 13th
and through Symantec:
http://secunia.com/virus_information/41383/antivirgear/?show_result=1
Interesting conspiracy theories are possible...
On the 14th, Google still only had fairly few results besides those 2
links, most of which were warez and other crap sites. But Google was
already up on making money off of the plight of normal users and off of
the less criminal scams around this new criminal ("rogue") program in
allowing an ad by NoAdware above the search results specifically saying
it gets rid of AntiVirGear. NoAdware is no longer an "officially listed"
rogue program (http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm), so
Google feels free to accept money from these scammers. I installed and
updated NoAdware and it was not able to detect AntiVirGear, which i'd
downloaded (but not installed) from zzz.antivirgear.com (www replaced
with zzz to prevent accidents by click-happy people). It's still scam
advertised in cahoots with Google and still unable to detect AntiVirGear
on Sep 18th at 13:18 GMT
SUPERAntiSpyware http://www.superantispyware.com was able to detect
AntiVirGear as promised.
I also tested the ability of other antispyware programs and the best
antivirus program (AntiVir) to detect this new threat and to test how
soon they acquire this ability. And here are the results (drum roll....)
I've been checking for updates every few hours in the programs i
recommended on http://local.nu/HelpDesk/index.php/Anti-spyware_software
(on the basis of my experience and the opinions of experts), and i'm sad
to say that most are responding very slowly to this new threat despite
having been sent copies by me and no doubt many others. Worse still, AVG
Anti-Spyware does not even have a link or address or any other means of
receiving malware submissions from users of the trial version. I spent a
long time looking through the site, and was always blocked by the demand
for a license number. The forums also have not mentioned AntiVirGear
once so far. Apparently nobody there reads the important antispyware
forum SpywareInfo...
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