Symantec labels China censor-busting software as Trojan

The Register (U.K.) ^ | September 14, 2004 | John Leyden

[Stoat]

Symantec has labelled a program that enables Chinese surfers to view blocked websites as a Trojan Horse. Upshot? Users of Norton Anti-Virus cannot access Freegate, a popular program which circumvents government blocks, the FT reports.

Freegate has 200,000 users, Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT), its developer, estimates. It lets users view sites banned by the Chinese government by taking advantage of a range of proxy servers assigned to changeable internet addresses. But a recent update to Symantec's AV definition files means the latest version of Freegate is treated as malware and removed from systems protected by Norton. Short of disabling Norton AV, users would have little say in this.

A Symantec staffer in China told the FT that Norton Anti-Virus identified Freegate as a Trojan horse, but declined to provide a rationale for such a definition. The absence of an explanation from Symantec raises concerns. We hope that the mislabelling of Freegate is a simple mistake, soon rectified, rather than yet another example of an IT firm helping Beijing implement restrictions.

History provides as least one example of the AV industry extending favours to China that it would normally withhold. AV firms normally keep virus samples under lock and key. But suppliers agreed to hand over virus samples to the Chinese government a few years ago as a condition of trading in the country. These samples could be easily found on the net but the incident illustrates a precedent of China being treated as a special exception.

[Stoat]

The main thing that this will accomplish is that it will turn Chinese computer users away from Symantec and over to it's many competitors.

Once people experience the sweet taste of freedom, they will do whatever it takes to keep it.

McAffee, Kaspersky, F-Prot and many others will quickly find themselves with a fantastic, new revenue base, provided, of course, that they can overcome the rampant software piracy problems that China has become legendary for.

[RS]

I wonder just how many LEGITIMATE copies of Norton were actually SOLD in china ?

[Stoat]

"I wonder just how many LEGITIMATE copies of Norton were actually SOLD in china ?"

hmmmm....how many medals did Kerry legitimately receive?

:-)

[melkor]

im surprised kaspersky doesnt "SUQEEELLL LIKE A PIG BOY!" every time it finds norton on a system....norton is the trojan horse.... you think your installing an antivirus program and all your doin is installing something to slow your system down.

[eno_]

Sun and Cisco help China build the Great Firewall. Now Symantex joins this Axis of Weasels.

[Stoat]

".... all your doin is installing something to slow your system down"

I think that the stoatputer would probably run about twice as fast if I didn't have all of this security crap running on it :-)

[melkor]

hehehe look at me!!! im norton internet security!!!!! ( flash flash....poof...network open.... BLOCK ACCESS TO MY OWN LIVEUPDATE PROGRAM....flash.....nap )

[Stoat]

"Sun and Cisco help China build the Great Firewall. Now Symantex joins this Axis of Weasels"

All good names to remember when you are considering which stocks to buy, and which companies you want to support with your hard-earned dollars.

Life is too short not to pay attention to such points as you raise. Generations of Chinese people have been suffocating under the heavy bootheel of China's Communists, and those of us Blessed with our hard-won freedoms have an opportunity to help make a difference in the quality of life for the Chinese people by considering where you money is going.

Excellent point.

[Looking4Truth]

McAffee

EFF McAfee!

I purchased their Av 8.0 and cannot get the auto-update feature to stay off. Everytime I go to their site, I get spammed with tons of pop-ups trying to sell me another one of their products. I close one and two more take its place.

I have relied on their products since the DOS/Win3.1 days but I am highly p!ssed at them now.

[eno_]

If they are willing to help keep the Chinese enslaved, don't think they are not equally enthusiastically building the Soft Cage right here in the U.S.

[Looking4Truth]

I know, I know, get a pop-up blocker. Heck, I'm running ZoneAlarm, McAfee AV, Ad-Aware, and SpyBot as it is. I guess I'll have to load more crap at startup.

[Stoat]

Sorry about my mis-spelling :-(

I have been hearing good things about Kaspersky

http://www.kaspersky.com/

and F-Prot

http://www.f-prot.com

in case you'd like to consider disabling your current antivirus app and trying a new one.

Other Freepers are certainly welcome to recommend their favorites....there's nothing like personal experience.

[Stoat]

"...I'm running ZoneAlarm, McAfee AV, Ad-Aware, and SpyBot as it is"

Actually, I've heard most software developers recommend against running similar programs simultaneously, particularly antivirus, popup blocker, firewall and security programs. Apparently they tend to sometimes cancel each other out, leaving you MORE vulnerable than less.

It's best to run one at a time, you will likely get better results that way.

[Stoat]

"If they are willing to help keep the Chinese enslaved, don't think they are not equally enthusiastically building the Soft Cage right here in the U.S"

Absolutely right, and we need to be eternally vigilant regarding these issues

[Looking4Truth]

It's best to run one at a time, you will likely get better results that way.

I've heard people say that, but on my system ZoneAlarm, Ad-Aware and Spybot 'know' about each other and ZoneAlarm 'knows' about McAfee. McAfee just wants to sell me more crap.

[MarkL]

It's not just China.

This sort of software has school network administrators pulling their hair out.

I support a number of school districts, and they work hard to keep the rugrats away from naughty sites.

They try to block proxy servers through the firewalls and content filters, but it's hard to keep up with them.

Mark

[melkor]

"...I'm running ZoneAlarm, McAfee AV, Ad-Aware, and SpyBot as it is"

Actually, I've heard most software developers recommend against running similar programs simultaneously, particularly antivirus, popup blocker, firewall and security programs. Apparently they tend to sometimes cancel each other out, leaving you MORE vulnerable than less.

It's best to run one at a time, you will likely get better results that way.

---

zone is a firewall, mccrashie av claims its an AV, ad-aware removes adbots and spybot removes spyware

they are not conflicting programs... conflicting programs would be like norton av norton internet securtity with sygate firewall and avg at the same time.

[Stoat]

Since his question was mainly regarding popups, I thought I recalled that either Zone Alarm or Spybot had popup blocker components in them, which may be possible to disable if true.

If my memory is faulty on this then I humbly beg forgiveness, as I'm not using either program at the moment.

Many of these programs have multiple functions and it's hard to keep them all straight if you don't use them daily.

[melkor]

i don't use zone either, since its the common firewall, its the one most heavily researched for hacking...

but from what i know of zone, it blocks popups by blocking network access to a naughty list of ad sites.

I prefer sygate personal or kaspersky AH but its your pc run what you feel you can use efficiently

ad-aware personal has no resident functions (ie you run it to clean and thats that, it doesn't stay resident to protect you) pro ads a resident shield, but i haven't had much success with it.

spybot has a BHO that tries to block some malware installs but does most of its preventive work through "immunization" (it just adds a list of 1900 sites to your IE restricted zone)

I'm not a fan of mainstream security programs (when you learn to pick locks, you learn on a masterlock brand)

ad-aware, spybot, and trackzapper do what they say they do, and so they get used quite frequently on systems that come in for repair "hmmm i had this computer for 2 months and now it wont get on the net"

best popup blocker in the world... is service pack 2 enhancements for ie 6.

I have seen many popup blockers that are really mal/spyware :( Best tool we can use for ourselves is the law. We have laws protecting us from stuff like that we just need to enforce them, and pressure the international community to follow along. There are too many folks hiding their stuff in other countries or using the other country in a MITM attack (man in the middle). Its no different than swiss bank accounts and south American drug refineries.

[melkor]

sorry, nothing personal, but this stuff is my soapbox :(