Another corporate pustule

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Moonchild
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Another corporate pustule

Unread post by Moonchild » 2025-01-08, 07:59

So, investigating some abuse through "privax.com" I found out it's part of another coporate pustule that basically absorbed most of the common "internet security" brands out there: Gen™
Gen Digital Inc. wrote:About Gen

Gen (NASDAQ: GEN) is a global company dedicated to powering Digital Freedom through its trusted Cyber Safety brands, Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner. Our solutions protect over 500 million users in 150+ countries.
So basically all big antiviruses + CCleaner are now one and the same publicly-traded corporation. And an unknown number of absorbed smaller businesses (like privax.com, ostensibly some kind of privacy/proxy service) also being part of it.

Funny thing is, if it wasn't for their aggressive brand policies to forward anything they absorbed directly to their corporate page, I probably never would have known...
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Re: Another coporate pustule

Unread post by moonbat » 2025-01-08, 08:03

Not surprising, seeing this is the case everywhere. Every popular or historic brand is now just a skin suit for some corporate hydra that's bought them all. It's a small handful of conglomerates in each industry that own all well known brands, be it cars, food products or online services.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by BenFenner » 2025-01-08, 15:56

Moonchild wrote:
2025-01-08, 07:59
So basically all big antiviruses + CCleaner are now one and the same publicly-traded corporation.
McAfee and TrendMicro are distinctly missing from that list.

(So glad all of these names are fading memories for me.)

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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by back2themoon » 2025-01-09, 11:18

To be honest, I still like and use CCleaner - enhanced by CCEnhancer. It hasn't changed that much, besides the added data-collection crap.

Always sticking with the portable version thus avoiding their cunning installer, blocking its various background tasks, connection attempts and disabling the relevant "Privacy" etc. settings.

But yes, another big problem here for the Internets.

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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by moonbat » 2025-01-09, 11:25

Not to be that person but I'm so glad I don't have to worry about any of this (not that I did when I was using Windows, I stuck to MSE and it did the job) since moving to Linux 5 years ago after using Windows for the previous 25.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by Moonchild » 2025-01-09, 11:37

moonbat wrote:
2025-01-09, 11:25
I don't have to worry about any of this (not that I did when I was using Windows
My observation wasn't necessarily about the type of software, but rather the fact that it's just yet another hydra that keeps growing and merging more and more into itself, inevitably applying a singular, uniform company policy and/or becoming a single point of failure for very large swathes of people. Not to start on anti-competitive/monopoly issues. It's just a little more important as it deals with people's online/computer security.

In the meantime I realized that Gen™ is actually just the abomination Symantec has turned into.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by BenFenner » 2025-01-09, 12:41

moonbat wrote:
2025-01-09, 11:25
I'm so glad I don't have to worry about any of this (not that I did when I was using Windows, I stuck to MSE and it did the job)
Yeah, competent Windows users never had to deal with those horrible pieces of software either. Unless you were in IT like I was, and then you had to fight an uphill battle with every client to get rid of those terrible lumps of junk.

One-time use of HijackThis and ComboFix were the go-to for two decades there...

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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by moonbat » 2025-01-09, 13:48

BenFenner wrote:
2025-01-09, 12:41
terrible lumps of junk.
They come preinstalled on new laptops and will immediately start pestering you to subscribe for virus definition updates. Got a new Windoze 11 laptop for my mum recently and the first thing I did was to remove the McAfee trialware that was there.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by Moonchild » 2025-01-09, 14:55

McAfee has always gotten their clients from pushing their stuff hard to OEMs, never because their stuff is actually good to have. It's their business model. As long as the company exists they will get preinstalls on new systems.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by suzyne » 2025-01-09, 19:41

BenFenner wrote:
2025-01-09, 12:41
Yeah, competent Windows users never had to deal with those horrible pieces of software either.
I believe this to be true, I have never installed additional antivirus protection on my Windows computers and haven't had problems for not doing so. There are justifications for switching to Linux, but for educated users to get relief from malware is not one of them.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by back2themoon » 2025-01-09, 20:54

suzyne wrote:
2025-01-09, 19:41
BenFenner wrote:
2025-01-09, 12:41
Yeah, competent Windows users never had to deal with those horrible pieces of software either.
I believe this to be true, I have never installed additional antivirus protection on my Windows computers...
Is "additional" the right word though? 3rd-party antivirus is meant to replace (i.e. turn off) Microsoft's built-in one. And Microsoft themselves once upon a time bought an antivirus from another company ("Giant") and shoved it into Windows.

Over the years, Microsoft took over, renamed and updated it. It remains a subpar solution with performance issues and questionable protection. Yes, almost no sensible user "gets infected" today. It's mostly about Web Protection these days and web browsers, along with ad/content blockers are doing a great job on their own.

From having recently used Microsoft's Defender, I distinctively remember constantly adding exclusions for many of my programs, thus reducing protection (via a joke of a UI btw), because Defender kept spiking HDD and CPU usage every time a non-mainstream program was doing its thing.

I consider Microsoft's Defender one of those built-in crap software. It's just hidden more elegantly since "it's part of the OS". But it truly remains horrible and I'd rather use a fully customisable, easy to use, advanced alternative from a reputable company. There are still a few ones that stealing your data is not their main goal.

And I'm not even sure if technically it's really "part of the OS", since it's designed -and forced by law, too- to turn itself off completely if replaced by the user.

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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by suzyne » 2025-01-09, 21:23

back2themoon wrote:
2025-01-09, 20:54
suzyne wrote:
2025-01-09, 19:41
BenFenner wrote:
2025-01-09, 12:41
Yeah, competent Windows users never had to deal with those horrible pieces of software either.
I believe this to be true, I have never installed additional antivirus protection on my Windows computers...
Is "additional" the right word though?
No, I guess not! So, I will try to be more precise next time to prevent confusion.
back2themoon wrote:
2025-01-09, 20:54
I consider Microsoft's Defender one of those built-in crap software.
Except for the occasional false alert, I have few complaints with Defender and even on my weak Laptop 2 the spiking behaviour you mention has not caused problems for me.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by frostknight » 2025-01-10, 06:20

suzyne wrote:
2025-01-09, 19:41
There are justifications for switching to Linux, but for educated users to get relief from malware is not one of them
Not by itself maybe, but if you add it among other small issues or a big issue, then yes.

I tried switching to linux like 10 years ago.

It wasn't until maybe 8+ years ago I made up my mind. Among the reasons were privacy, malware and I later found that speed was also one of them.

This being said, for you and anyone else who still feels the need to use windows, I ask for the sake of sanity, block ads and trackers whenever you can. The more you are tracked, the more you can get malware.

Besides, ads track and slow things down alot anyways.
Moonchild wrote:
2025-01-08, 07:59
Funny thing is, if it wasn't for their aggressive brand policies to forward anything they absorbed directly to their corporate page, I probably never would have known...
Funny thing is, I have seen many computers with windows in the past use mcafee, norton or something else, all slowed stuff down and malware still got in!
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by Falna » 2025-01-10, 12:58

BenFenner wrote:
2025-01-08, 15:56
McAfee and TrendMicro are distinctly missing from that list.
As are ESET, who remain independent and apparently Europe's biggest cybersecurity company. I've been using their products on my Windows machines for as long as I can remember.

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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by athenian200 » 2025-01-13, 00:42

Yeah, I definitely don't like to see that level of consolidation. It doesn't really allow for much competition and basically results in production of the bare minimum people will accept, which is not really desirable.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by daemonspudguy » 2025-01-30, 21:27

I don't use Windows and haven't for many years now, but I usually recommend BitDefender to those who do. They're still independent and based in Romania.

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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by Moonchild » 2025-01-30, 21:42

Can't speak of Bitdefender's quality, but their sales department doesn't do things right which has turned me off of them.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by frostknight » 2025-02-01, 02:40

daemonspudguy wrote:
2025-01-30, 21:27
I don't use Windows and haven't for many years now, but I usually recommend BitDefender to those who do. They're still independent and based in Romania.
One benefit of linux, like it or not, is virtually no malware and not just because its not developed as much for linux either. The protections against malware for linux are many layered and are done with more sophistication.

That being said, some people alas are stuck needing it for windows specific programs that wine doesn't support. I understand how that could be a pain.

I do wonder if ZorinOS does any better in their pro version of supporting windows applications though.
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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by daemonspudguy » 2025-02-01, 02:43

ZorinOS uses Wine to have Windows compatibility, so it's limited to what Wine can do.

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Re: Another corporate pustule

Unread post by frostknight » 2025-02-01, 03:06

daemonspudguy wrote:
2025-02-01, 02:43
ZorinOS uses Wine to have Windows compatibility, so it's limited to what Wine can do.
I figured as much. I just meant I didn't know if they had something better. There is something called codeweavers I believe. Their pro version of Zorin, I wondered if it had that. probably not, but I thought I would ask.
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