Blog

Problems With Norton Anti-Virus

Apparently, Symantec, the creators of Norton Anti-Virus, have jumped on the popular “file reputation” wagon. Microsoft introduced this in one of their recent Internet Explorer updates. Basically it means that any file that doesn’t have a gazillion downloads is seen as a possible threat, simply because there’s not enough data to prove that it’s absolutely safe. This really is a very sad attempt at protecting users: Deleting files the second they are downloaded because they are not “trusted”. Exactly how will the file ever be trusted if nobody is allowed to download it?

All our executable files are digitally signed by “Pecunia Systems”. If you come across this issue with Norton Anti-Virus, or any other Anti-Virus software, please disable it and download and install FX Synergy, then re-enable it. You shouldn’t see any issues after installing.

If you don’t, Norton Anti-Virus shows a big red notification about “WS.Reputation.1” and that the file has been removed, and it certainly looks like a virur or something malicious was found, EXCEPT if you read the definiton on Symantec’s website:

WS.Reputation.1 is a detection for files that have a low reputation score based on analyzing data from Symantec’s community of users and therefore are likely to be security risks. Detections of this type are based on Symantec’s reputation-based security technology. Because this detection is based on a reputation score, it does not represent a specific class of threat like adware or spyware, but instead applies to all threat categories.

They are basically saying that the file is NOT a direct or known threat, but they still nuke it just to be safe. What?

You can read the full description here:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-051308-1854-99

We will be contacting Symantec about this because they are trying to protect their users against a possible threat that isn’t there, based on a file not being widely known since we don’t have a gazillion users.

It really makes us wonder what’s coming next to “protect” users? Maybe in a few months you are not allowed to visit websites that are not widely known, because it might be a threat since it doesn’t have a gazillion users. Maybe in a few years our cars can’t drive to destinations that are not widely visited by other people, because it might not be safe?

End of rant.