You’ve probably seen this before: An alarming pop-up alert warns you that “Your PC may be in danger!” and concludes with an all-caps prompt: “GET PROTECTION.”
But in this case, the pop-up wasn’t a “scareware” scam launched to frighten Windows users into installing Trojan horse malware. It came from CheckPoint Software Technologies, publishers of the ZoneAlarm line of security programs. CheckPoint evidently thought it was helping users of its free ZoneAlarm firewall by letting them know (correctly) that the program, by itself, would not stop a new, rapidly spreading Windows virus.
ZoneAlarm firewall users were not amused by the sales pitch and let the company know it; two days ago, the company backed down. A post on its blog said the company had turned off the pop-up, which it never intended “to lead customers to believe they have a virus on their computer.”
Sadly, I can’t say I was surprised to learn about this. Commercial security-software vendors have a history of making a nuisance of themselves. At best, they simply bug the user with reminders of what a great job they’re doing, and at worst you have things like ZoneAlarm’s alarmist pop-up–which isn’t the first time the company has resorted to pushy marketing on a user’s desktop.
(Correction: At worst you have toxic interactions that cut you off from your own legitimate Internet applications. After hearing about enough of these problems from my brother after he installed ZoneAlarm’s firewall several years ago, I stopped recommending that program.)
Last fall, I heartily recommended the free-for-personal-use Microsoft Security Essentials for its unobtrusive, nag-free operation. MSE’s strong performance in independent tests since then has given me no reason to doubt my initial thumbs-up.
But I sometimes wonder if the presence of a free security tool from Microsoft won’t drive developers of non-free competitors to desperate measures. ZoneAlarm’s fiasco suggests that’s a genuine risk–even as the PR blowback it suffered should provide an object lesson to other security firms. Ars Technica’s Emil Protalinski said it well in that tech-news site’s write-up, which features some entertaining screenshots comparing the ZoneAlarm prompt to that of a generic scareware alert: “the marketing department should not be allowed to make security warning decisions.”
Was your desktop graced by ZoneAlarm’s alert? If so, did you think it was a legitimate notice, or were you wondering why your security software hadn’t stopped it?
Source:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/09/zonealarm_gives_people_a_new_r.html
