Originally published at: Kaspersky customers surprised by unwanted software - Boing Boing
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But a completely expected look for a Russian cybersecurity company.
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“…while some users could uninstall UltraAV using the software’s uninstaller, those who tried removing it using uninstall apps saw it reinstalled after a reboot, causing further concerns about a potential malware infection.”…
“It is certainly possible that there was no nefarious intent …”
It will be interesting to see if the UltraAV software is just a simple AV program or if it is designed to compromise systems where it is installed, perhaps exfiltrating data or even running a crypto-miner (like Norton - see [Here’s the truth about the crypto miner that comes with Norton Antivirus](Here’s the truth about the crypto miner that comes with Norton Antivirus - The Verge), The Verge, 20220107 or utilizing computers for other distributed computing or nefarious tasks.
By its nature anti-virus software intrinsically compromises the system it is designed to protect. It is also, by design, intrinsically hard to examine how works and it’s code. And this installation compromises trust.
In short, who would trust UltraAV software now? If my landlord showed up on their own and said, “I replaced all the locks, here are the keys, and I totally don’t have a copy of the key to the locks, I just wanted to ease your transition into your home.”, I would still have them rekeyed.
From my stand point, there was mail intent. At best to undermine trust in AV software (don’t trust the security guard that won’t let you see what their doing), and at worst gaining access to machines to execute arbitrary tasks and code.
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Are any of these better than the MS Defender that ships with Windows?
I tried ClamAV for Windows (this was some time ago, so it may have been a fork) & it was a lot of false positives, e.g. dll files that were, in fact, supposed to be there. They had a forum that was effectively run by Nathan Thurm.
& that was the end of that…
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But of course the worst viruses you can get are the ones that you think are antivirus. Almost any AV software you find on the net is a scam at best.
Much like how the new timeshare scam is the timeshare exit industry scam.
Need a problem solved? Just go to Google and find a bigger problem waiting to pounce on you.
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I was one of these customers. There was a multi-month long series of emails notifying me of the proposed change, what to expect, and how to opt out if I so chose. There were also notifications in the Kaspersky toolbar that said the same. I still have to activate UltraAV, so right now it isn’t doing anything other than taking up disc space.
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