Emsisoft – You’ve Done it Again! Several years ago, we stopped recommending MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender) because of its poor ratings and because of its poor protection. And this was about the same time as Malwarebytes stopped detecting a lot of the PUPs it once detected and removed. So we were on a mission to… Read More »
Trim the horns of Microsoft’s snoopy monster (Windows 10) Are you running Windows 10? Are you paranoid? Afraid Microsoft is going to gather up too much info on you and then use it against you when your data becomes reincarnated as The Ghost of Your Privacy Future? Or Are you just concerned that maybe Microsoft’s altruism – giving… Read More »
The Pharmer in the Dell: Redux Ten years ago, in 2005, Dell tried sneaking malware/PUPs onto their computers and we wrote it up and called them out. In 2012 we republished the article ( with some changes ) because Dell again tried to trick consumers into purchasing computers with pre-installed malware and/or PUPs. Well, the more things change, the… Read More »
Emsisoft Wins Again We’ve been recommending Emsisoft for quite a while now. After Microsoft Security Essentials started going down hill and Malwarebytes decided to ignore many PUPs, we got busy and started evaluating security products. What we were looking for was not a security suite with all kinds of useless stuff (Spam Blockers, site raters, etc.) but a… Read More »
What are PUPs? PUPs are not things; PUPs is an acronym for Potentially Unwanted Programs. It really should be PUS, Potentially Unwanted Software – but PUS doesn’t sound very nice – though PUS might be closer to what you get when you install PUPs (or malware) on your computer. PUPs are what antivirus/antimalware companies call some malware so… Read More »
Stop: Serious security threats have been detected on your computer I was browsing through some freeware sites the other day (and I’m sorry I can’t remember exactly which one) and I saw the warning below appear. It had my real IP address and my ISP. I wondered how many people have been duped by this advertisement disguised as… Read More »