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CA's 'Pest Scan' Results Mislead Users
FriedDuck writes "After reading E-Weeks' article about CA's ranking of spyware threats I went to their site to check it out and try their free spyware scan. I was stunned. CA reported that my machine is being terrorized by eleven 'pests' including some that are pretty serious (not just tracking cookies.) Unfortunately all of the serious threats were false positives. CA reported that I had a key logger, cracking tool, and various other nasties that all turned out to be common software (e.g. Flash, SourceSafe) that one wouldn't easily mistake for malware. In fact, without exception my system contained none of the registry keys, folders, or binaries that CA itself say should be there. A blatant attempt at scaring people into buying shoddy software." Read on for the details of what was found, and what was actually on the system.
"If it matters, here's what it reported, and what was there on my system:
- System Spy - Key Logger. Mistook MSFT's SourceSafe executable for the keylogger. None of the other registry keys, folders or binaries were present
- Fake CD .99 - Cracking Tool. Mistook the generically-named unins000.exe that InstallShield uses as the Cracking tool. None of the other binaries were present
- Ezula TopText - Adware. Mistook the installation of Flash as the adware. Stupid.
- BonziBuddy - Spyware. Mistook a common library intalled by Borland's CaliberRM (EZSMTP object) as the spyware.
None of the other binaries, folders or keys (of which there are many) were present."
Please moderate down to -1 so that other users will not be infected.