ZoneAlarm Employs Scare Tactics Against Its Users

snydeq writes "Check Point Software appears to be ripping a page from the 'scum it claims to fight,' running a scare-tactic warning dialog to frighten users into upgrading to a paid version of the company's ZoneAlarm firewall product. Preying on fears of ZeuS.Zbot, the Check Point warning dialog tells users their PCs 'may be in danger' without having found ZeuS.Zbot, nor having checked to see whether you're running an antivirus product. 'The program doesn't care if you're infected with ZeuS.Zbot, or if you have protection in place. It just wants to sell you an upgrade to the firewall that may or may not detect future ZeuS.Zbot variants' activities — some day.' Check Point's customers have inundated the ZoneAlarm forums with complaints."

Comments

Backfire after management change

[flydpnkrtn]

As a poster indicates, ZA was bought out by CheckPoint a few months ago. This scare tactic will probably backfire on them...

Why in the hell did someone at CheckPoint say to themselves "Wait a second... Gestapo style marketing that looks like a phishing scam sounds like a great idea!"

Re:Backfire after management change

[jopsen]

This scare tactic will probably backfire on them...

Wouldn't that require that their customers knowns the difference between, the ZoneAlarm popup and one of the five other popups provided Symantec, AVG free and Avast... All of which are likely installed and peacefully generating popups at appropriate intervals...
- Seriously, how many tech savvy users runs Windows, sorry I mean... How many tech savvy users runs anti virus software... let alone ZoneAlarm... :)

ZoneAlarm users get what they deserve

[realmolo]

Seriously. What morons are using ZoneAlarm? WHY would you use it, when Windows has had a better firewall since XP, and the Vista/Windows 7 firewall is even better than that?

ZoneAlarm has always been a piece-of-shit.

Re:ZoneAlarm users get what they deserve

[Beerdood]

Seriously. What morons are using ZoneAlarm?

The same people that never remove any programs from their desktop and agree to anything any pop up tells them to. (Oh I have to update? Ok, I'll just click yes - it must be helpful!) When your non-computer-savvy friends call you for "tech support" and you start up their computer to find out why it's running so slow - it doesn't surprise me to see all sorts of useless or ancient programs running in the background.

That's pretty much who zone alarm is after. The non-techie crowd that still happens to have their software installed that can be easily fooled into thinking they have a virus.

Re:ZoneAlarm users get what they deserve

[mysidia]

Try blocking outgoing connections with the XP firewall.

Try upgrading to Windows 7 and using Windows Advanced Firewall instead of a 12-year-old product ? :)

Worrying about blocking outgoing connections with ye' ol' windows XP firewall is kind of like worrying about duplex printing on a 80s/early 90s-era dot matrix printer <G>

Re:ZoneAlarm users get what they deserve

[JayGuerette]

WHY would you use it, when Windows has had a better firewall since XP, and the Vista/Windows 7 firewall is even better than that?

Why? Simple: because the Windows firewalls have a built-in white-list. That completely removes it from my consideration. I'd argue that 'firewall' is not even applicable to that service.

Re:ZoneAlarm users get what they deserve

[MMC Monster]

Seriously. What morons are using ZoneAlarm?

You know that person you told to use Zone Alarm 8 years ago? He's been upgrading since then and telling all his friends that his computer expert friend told him Zone Alarm is great.

Sucks to be us.

Re:ZoneAlarm users get what they deserve

[Anonymous Coward]

And that whitelist is completely editable (in Vista and 7, at least).

ZA -- good but time passed it by

[mlts]

I remember ZA being decent, especially the registered version. However, there isn't a need for it anymore, just like there isn't a need for QEMM-like packages for new equipment. Windows 7 has a decent built in firewall to keep things out [1], and for antivirus protection, Microsoft Security Essentials is a download away and licensed at no charge.

[1]: If a compromised app is trying to phone home, the battle is lost when it comes to host security. So having a firewall popping up Allow/Deny dialogs is pointless on post-XP Windows versions because of the amount of false positives generated.

Re:Trusted

[Darkness404]

....Because many viruses will try to open up ports so they can send spam, etc.

Zounds! ZoneAlarm zealous about Zeus.Zbot?

[Culture20]

Whatever happened to alliteration in article titles?

Re:ZoneAlarm still exists?

[Lumpy]

Yes; windows XP SP2 or higher, windows Vista, and Windows 7. All three have a firewall that is more than most users need.

IF you really need a "little snitch" type of app for windows, you need advanced software. 99% of all users do not need this kind of "firewall" and would be better off with the built in windows one.

Re:ZoneAlarm still exists?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the best free kit I have seen so far is comodo firewall and antivirus. Good bit of kit but defence plus will give any non-savvy computer users a headache.

Re:ZoneAlarm still exists?

[magnusrex1280]

Microsoft Security Essentials, hands-down. Faster and more efficient than all the others, and it's unobtrusive. And it's free.

Re:ZoneAlarm still exists?

[h4rr4r]

iptables.

Re:ZoneAlarm still exists?

[SenFo]

Combine the built in firewall with Microsoft Security Essentials and keep with Windows updates and you'll generally have a secure system.

Re:ZoneAlarm still exists?

[Jaseoldboss]

I came across a great illustration of why you need a good firewall that can be used to control outbound traffic the other day. I was installing CPUID and the installer tried to contact Ask.com before it had even asked me whether I wanted the Ask toolbar installed or not.

Windows firewall would have just let that through but I was using the Sphinx Software firewall app that configures Windows Firewall so that you can use it to stop unauthorised outbound traffic.