3 ms·
I'm not surprised. The antivirus sector seems to prey on people as much as the virus makers. I had my PC infected accidentally by norton antivirus a few years a
by Joeri 7y ago
I'm not surprised. The antivirus sector seems to prey on people as much as the virus makers. I had my PC infected accidentally by norton antivirus a few years ago. They snuck it onto my system by hiding themselves in an oracle java update. They didn't install right away, waited a bit so I couldn't immediately link it back to what caused it. The uninstall function in programs and settings was a misdirection and threw an obscure error. The uninstaller downloadable from their website would pretend to uninstall, require a reboot, and after the reboot the malware would reseat itself on my system. Eventually I had to start up in safe mode and painstakingly go through my system file by file, and registry key by registry key, to root it out. They know all the techniques the viruses use, and they use most of them.
That was when I decided to stop using Oracle Java on all my personal systems and minimize my use of Oracle products on a professional basis. Learning they were a malware distributor was the drop that tipped the bucket.
- mschuetz 7y agoGlad I'm not the only one. I was a Java dev for many years and also used it for private projects. When they started shipping unwanted malware together with Java was when I decided to remove Java from my toolset.
- bArray 7y ago> When they started shipping unwanted malware together with > Java was when I decided to remove Java from my toolset. Would just like to say, OpenJDK is quite a solid step-in replacement for Oracle's Java: https://openjdk.java.net/ https://openjdk.java.net/ I've used it in production, I've built apps that I then _had to_ use Oracle's Java (without problem), using older and newer versions have been very stable - would very much recommend. I had one issue 8 years ago between versions, but nothing since.
- barbarbar 7y agoI have never heard of this. Do you know which versions that include that kind of malwa reference.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoDie gelbe Pest, The yellow plague! The wasps' nest, ARRGH!
- Grimm665 7y agoIf this happens to you (or anyone else) again, I've found the go-to solution from my previous job as a repair technician. There are antivirus removal tools that basically do automatically what you did manually, purge the system of the antivirus files and registry keys. I've found them to work very well, even on later AV versions. For McAfee it's called the McAfee Removal Tool, and for any Symantec product, there is CleanWipe as well as the Norton Removal Tool. I am not sure of the legality of posting these tools publicly, but they are probably easy to find via search engine or torrent. May not help you if you're working with corporate machines, but I use them all the time for any machine I inherit or when helping out friends and family.