Zone Alarm Scumbags?

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by Aspman
ZA have always been a little sneaky with the freebie. It flashes up a lot more warnings than the paid for version. I can live with that, it's free and it works ok.

Mind you Nihil, the free ZA is a firewall only, why would you expect it to protect you from email viruses?

As an aside what are the current freebie alternatives to ZA? I've used it for so long I've lost track of the other products?

---

Aspman

There is this one...Agnitum

Not familiar with them, I used to have ZA, then I ripped them out last week, I can live with a router and Windows firewall....and seeing as how I have a paid version of Mailwasher, I never get email unless I want it...as it now sits on the server, and I can delete from there...

There is also Kerio, but it's full use expires after 30 days..Kerio

nihil, the virus they are warning you about is a mass mailler. Why zone alarm has decided to go with AD-WARE tatics is beyond me. And I aggree with you that they are scum, just for diffrent reasons, most people (average users) wouldnt reliese that a firewall cant protect you from infection from an email virus and that their just pushing their AV software. But I do know this for a fact, any infected machine running the free version of zone alarm damn well better pick up that smtp engines outbound network activity, outherwise their software is worthless and no more usefull than the winxp sp2 firewall.

The free version of ZA does not include an AV, maybe that is what they meant when they told you to upgrade your version to the paid one to be protected?

All their saying is that if you pay that amount you get the ZA Pro which has a built-in IDS and Antivirus package. Ergo, their just advertising another product and NOT saying that the Free ZA firewall will not be sufficient to protect you.

Greeting's

For all those who want to know about the virus nihil (and ZA) is talking about :

http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=1090&rss

http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=1088&rss

Quote:

---

"...I found that a very old flaw still exists in many latest versions of desktop based firewalls. It is possible for a malicious program to bypass a desktop based firewall by using DDE-IPC (Direct Data Exchange - Interprocess Communications) which enables an un-trusted program to communicate with the attacker or access internet via other trusted programs...

---

Here's why I like Agnitum's Outpost Pro:
Process Memory Control- Monitors for any program changing another program's code
Hidden Process Monitor - Watches for malicious programs "piggybacking" legit processes
Component Control Settings - Monitors changes to components of programs (perfect example: the edition of a .dll to a program)
Agnitum has focused their attention on "inside-out" attacks, a.k.a leaks. I think Pro got some excellent ratings when leak tested. I don't remember where I saw the results though.
In any event, I think I paid $39.95 for the damn thing. It averages out to be $3.33 a month over a year's span.
Yes, believe it or not, I'm willing to reach that deep into my wallet.
A value meal at Burger King, once a month for a year....or...security for my computer
damn. decisions. decisions.