Symantec Names Spybot a Zombie

Last month I wrote about Symantec being unfair to other popular spyware vendors. When you install NAV 2007 it will look for programs like WinPatrol and Spybot Search &Destroy and tell you they’re incompatible.  We have proved this to be false and WinPatrol works fine along side NAV 2007. Symantec however recommends users remove it.  It’s not hard to imagine how many customers I will lose because of this false warning.

Now they’ve really made me mad.  There’s a new malicious bot program making the rounds and Symantec has named it “W32.Spybot.ACYR”.  Click to read more from CNet’s Joris Evans

In my opinion, this is a blatant attempt at discrediting a popular anti-malware tool.  I can easily see WinPatrol.troj being named for the next Trojan they find patrolling the internet.

This back door robot uses a vulnerability in an open port which has been patched by recent Microsoft updates.  If an unpatched machine without WinPatrol or other real-time monitor is infected a user may never know.  Once infected the “zombie” will sit back and wait to be used in the future to relay spam or launch “Denial Of Service” attacks. McAfee has picked the name sdbot.worm!811a7027 which is more accurate based on past sdbot type infections.

I realize Symantec is losing market share to Microsoft but they’ll never have my support if they continue this attack on the little guys.

Research Available at PC Pitstop