{"id":8980,"date":"2015-01-19T18:47:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T23:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=8980"},"modified":"2015-01-19T18:47:01","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T23:47:01","slug":"has-the-antivirus-industry-gone-mad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/has-the-antivirus-industry-gone-mad\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the antivirus industry gone mad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our friends at Emsisoft wrote and gave us permission to publish this article<\/a><\/span><\/strong> on our Web site. We’ve exposed Avast and AVG before – they install PUPs and search engine and browser toolbars and hijackers. Supposedly free, the price you pay in aggravation may make you take another look at them. And considering neither Avast nor AVG have little or no protection from PUPS — it’s no wonder, since they install PUPs too – the price of these two free antivirus programs may be more than you’re willing to pay.<\/p>\n

We’d like to thank Emsisoft for conducting this research and validating our own research into Avast and AVG installing PUPs.<\/p>\n

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Has the antivirus industry gone mad?!<\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/header>\n
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We have seen a concerning trend that is about to spiral out of control:\u00a0Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) are further on the rise.\u00a0What\u2019s even more concerning is how<\/em> they are spreading. After\u00a0big vendors as Oracle (Java) and Microsoft (Bing and Skype) started bundling, now antivirus vendors have joined the game. We did research on some of the\u00a0most popular\u00a0PUP practices among\u00a0the\u00a0freeware antivirus vendors, and the results are quite disturbing.<\/p>\n

PUPs want to get on your computer to make money off of you<\/h3>\n

First, lets quickly recap what PUPs are and why they\u2019re spreading like wildfire.\u00a0PUPs<\/a>\u00a0are programs in the form oftoolbars, adware, plugins or other downloads that sneak onto your computer.<\/strong> PUPs are not\u00a0classified as\u00a0malware (yet?), since they\u2019re not always harmful but pretty much always\u00a0annoying, hence the name \u201cpotentially\u201d unwanted. But, PUPs are getting more and more unwanted than ever: just the fact that you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re installing is undesired. If you notice a sudden change in your computer\u2019s speed, notice your search engine changed, experience annoying pop-up ads, notice new toolbars in your browser menu bar or any other sudden change in your computer\u2019s behavior or layout, chances are high that your computer has one or more PUPs installed.<\/p>\n

\"pup-toolbars\"<\/p>\n

PUPs\u00a0come in many shapes and forms, but they all have a few things in common:<\/p>\n