Microsoft warns over rogue Security Essentials Microsoft has warned Windows users to be on their guard against a piece of rogue antivirus software passing itself off as Microsoft Security Essentials. Security essentials 2010 is a piece of software Microsoft said installs a fake virus scanner on your machine and]monitors and blocks processes it doesn't like. The software …
...we can't have Microsoft bundling free software with their OS. It's just so unfair to all those companies who want to charge for it.
Security Essentials is excellent - I was so glad to find out about it after installing Win7. Probably due to all the law suits MS gets it was actually kinda tricky to find on their website - all the other AV companies were listed first. The best part of SE is it's free.
They should bundle it, but I bet I know why they don't - anti trust action and the EU. The old "you're abusing your monopoly (how, people could by a mac)."
Anyway, i prefer MSSE to AVG as it does not screw up Vista, or beg for money at every opportunity.
Microsoft are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
So that all of the commercial antivirus companies can whinge and moan at microsoft for "anti competitiveness " and "monopoly abuse" and "restricting choice" ad infinitum along exactly the same lines as the browser choice battle microsoft have just lost?
Working antivirus software out of the box would be great and a real serious benefit to a large amount of users, but the commercial antivirus producers know that it'd marginally hurt their bottom line, so will happily see large amounts of users who don't know any better going av-softwareless just so that they can keep the business of a very small minority that would go for a paid offering instead of microsofts if ms's wasnt preinstalled. And they'd do it all in the name of "choice for users".
Whe you install Windows 7 the Security centre tells you you need to find an antivirus program (obviously, it isn't installed at first) and then there is a nice link to a nice page with lots of free / pay for ant-virus / internet security downloads including Security Essentials
Worked for me anyway
He downloaded it and installed it, thinking it was a good thing. It just made his PC slower, plugged-up his Internet connection, and generally made a continuing nuisance of itself. After a while, it started hitting him up for $60 a year. He called the telephone number, and somehow managed to talk them down to $50.
I think the program in question is called McAfee.
This is a simple virus. Easy to kill. Doesn't work in Safe Mode. So just boot into there. Fire up msconfig.exe and you'll see the obvious filenames in the startup list. Then go look into your %appdata%\Local\ folder and you'll see a couple of randomly named folders with randomly named files in. Delete them.
NOD32 will also kill it off. (If you can get the update - or scan it as an extracted hard disk)
NOTE: Also go and check your Proxy Server settings as this is how it is stopping the updates of the AV programs.
I already don't trust Microsoft for its "security" essentials, so I certainly won't be downloading any kind of copy from an unknown source. Or even from a known source.
I have my computer security essentials since years ago :
- a hardware firewall, admin password changed and properly configured
- IE relegated to the status of secondary browser for specific needs. Most browsing done with Firefox configured with NoScript and AdBlock
- MSN banned from the house
- regular scans made with online scanning tools from official sites
Guess what ? I have no issues with my PC.
And Microsoft is certainly not going to change that, with or without its Essentials.
This type of attack has been going on for the past few years. Messages popping up trying to look like popular Anti-Virus products, or XP\Vista's own built in security warnings. It is all about trying to fool the unwary into clicking on the "give us 50 quid" links to get rid of the scary sounding list of infections.
@Bundle It - that would be daft. Then the virus writers would only need to target ONE form of defence which makes it an easier job for them to develop and test viruses. While we still have a competing market of products, then it is harder for a virus to really get hold.
Perhaps you've heard of Microsoft's problems with it.
Anyway, sure there's lots you can do to improve computer security, and God knows Microsoft have needed to improve in that area, but sooner or later if users just point blank insist on downloading malware then you're either going to have to create a "walled garden" and hope they like that or just accept that there's only so much you can do to save people from their own idiocy.
That was the original plan but when the EU & US competition commissions were asked for opinions by MS they "strongly suggested" they did not pursue bundling.
Basically IT competition rules state that if you're organisation is named Microsoft you are not allowed to distribute more then a core OS even if it increases users security, if your name happens to be Apple or indeed any other house you can do anything you please even if Microsoft have paid out billions for the same "crime".
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