Germany warns against Russian anti-virus use

[follower]

This is a bit much.

How can I trust them?

Daxin: Stealthy Backdoor Designed for Attacks Against Hardened Networks

Espionage tool is the most advanced piece of malware Symantec researchers have seen from China-linked actors.

symantec-enterprise-blogs.security.com

Chinese Hackers Target Taiwanese Financial Institutions with a new Stealthy Backdoor

An APT hacker group backed by the Chinese government has been targeting financial institutions in Taiwan with a new stealthy malware backdoor.

thehackernews.com

FBI warns US companies about backdoors in Chinese tax software

Following the GoldenHelper and GoldenSpy malware reports, the FBI is now warning US companies operating in China.

www.zdnet.com

Spyware features found in Chinese state benefits app

Spyware-like features have been discovered inside an app named \"Beijing One Pass\" that foreign companies operating in China are forced to install on their systems in order to access a digital platform to manage employee state benefits.

therecord.media

Chinese Researchers Detail Linux Backdoor of NSA-Linked Equation Group

Chinese researchers publish a 50-page report detailing Linux malware allegedly used against many targets by the NSA-linked Equation Group.

www.securityweek.com

Chinese app pushing Xi's ideology has 'backdoor' that could let Beijing snoop on users, report says

"Study the Great Nation" or "Xuexi Qiangguo" in Chinese had code "resembling a backdoor," according to a new report, that allows

www.cnbc.com

China's Study the Great Nation app 'enables spying via back door'

Study the Great Nation could be used to monitor phone-users' activity, a security firm warns.

www.bbc.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-app-on-xis-ideology-allows-data-access-to-100-million-users-phones-report-says/2019/10/11/2d53bbae-eb4d-11e9-bafb-da248f8d5734_story.html

TikTok, WeChat & Co: How does spyware get into smartphones? – DW – 08/27/2020

TikTok, WeChat and thousands of other apps from China look harmless but are, in fact, malware, experts say. The apps cleverly disguise their origin. How can we protect ourselves from them?

www.dw.com

Security Flaws Seen in China’s Mandatory Olympics App for Athletes

Researchers said the app, which will store sensitive health data on participants at the Winter Games, has serious encryption vulnerabilities.

www.nytimes.com

Researchers Warn of Stealthy Chinese Backdoor Targeting Multiple Foreign Agencies

A stealthy backdoor program used by China-linked threat actors has targeted government computers at multiple foreign agencies, allowing attackers to retain a presence on sensitive networks and exfiltrate data while remaining undetected.

www.darkreading.com

Official Chinese App Allows Backdoor Access To Phones | Silicon UK Tech News

Security vendor Cure 53 finds heavily promoted Chinese app contains code to allow state monitoring of phones and associated data

www.silicon.co.uk

 

[Paliv]

How can I trust them?

Daxin: Stealthy Backdoor Designed for Attacks Against Hardened Networks

Espionage tool is the most advanced piece of malware Symantec researchers have seen from China-linked actors.

symantec-enterprise-blogs.security.com

Chinese Researchers Detail Linux Backdoor of NSA-Linked Equation Group

Chinese researchers publish a 50-page report detailing Linux malware allegedly used against many targets by the NSA-linked Equation Group.

www.securityweek.com

Chinese app pushing Xi's ideology has 'backdoor' that could let Beijing snoop on users, report says

"Study the Great Nation" or "Xuexi Qiangguo" in Chinese had code "resembling a backdoor," according to a new report, that allows

www.cnbc.com

China's Study the Great Nation app 'enables spying via back door'

Study the Great Nation could be used to monitor phone-users' activity, a security firm warns.

www.bbc.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-app-on-xis-ideology-allows-data-access-to-100-million-users-phones-report-says/2019/10/11/2d53bbae-eb4d-11e9-bafb-da248f8d5734_story.html

TikTok, WeChat & Co: How does spyware get into smartphones? – DW – 08/27/2020

TikTok, WeChat and thousands of other apps from China look harmless but are, in fact, malware, experts say. The apps cleverly disguise their origin. How can we protect ourselves from them?

www.dw.com

Security Flaws Seen in China’s Mandatory Olympics App for Athletes

Researchers said the app, which will store sensitive health data on participants at the Winter Games, has serious encryption vulnerabilities.

www.nytimes.com

Researchers Warn of Stealthy Chinese Backdoor Targeting Multiple Foreign Agencies

A stealthy backdoor program used by China-linked threat actors has targeted government computers at multiple foreign agencies, allowing attackers to retain a presence on sensitive networks and exfiltrate data while remaining undetected.

www.darkreading.com

Official Chinese App Allows Backdoor Access To Phones | Silicon UK Tech News

Security vendor Cure 53 finds heavily promoted Chinese app contains code to allow state monitoring of phones and associated data

www.silicon.co.uk

There are bad actors in western countries as well.

 

[Tech9]

How can I trust them?

Cisco had seven backdoors discovered in their popular networking products. No big deal though, friendly American company.

 

[follower]

a few months ago I read an article from a security expert stating that the current Microsoft Defender, albeit with fewer features when compared with the paid anti-virus, is as highly efficient as the competition. I can't recall where I read it but this review (https://www.trustedreviews.com/versus/windows-defender-vs-third-party-antivirus-4206380) reaches similar conclusions. The conclusion was that, in conjunction to using a decent and updated browser (which are currently the most used vector to spread virus and so on), Microsoft Defender provided a as good protection as the paid-versions.

Yes. Microsoft Defender is good. But it has lack of functions. I don't like it.
Trend micro: FP rate is too high. I don't like it.

 

[follower]

Cisco had seven backdoors discovered in their popular networking products. No big deal though, friendly American company.

But highly less than chinese companies. There are so many chinese Android TV BOX with backdoored at Amazon. This is the fact.
Ratio 1:1000000000000000000000000000000.

 

[follower]

There are bad actors in western countries as well.

There are a lot of POCs and codes. But acting?

 

[dave14305]

There are bad actors in western countries as well.

Kevin Costner and Nicolas Cage come to mind.

 

[Tech9]

But highly less than chinese companies.

Yes. It really warms my heart to read this (Feb 2022) just before product EOS (Nov, 2022):

Cisco this week announced patches for multiple vulnerabilities in its Small Business RV160, RV260, RV340, and RV345 series routers, including critical bugs that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code with root privileges.

The most severe of these issues is CVE-2022-20699 (CVSS score of 10.0), as it allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable device. The bug exists because there aren’t sufficient boundary checks performed during the processing of specific HTTP requests.

They fixed it, finally.

When it comes from China it's intentional. When it comes from USA it just a bug, sorry. Right?

 

[zwitterion]

Kaspersky has responded to the US Government allegations of having Russian gov ties by moving its headquarters to Switzerland, where they now operate from. The PC Security Channel on YouTube runs scripts that launch thousands of various malwares, virus', trojans, etc. and Kaspersky comes out on top, every time. Bitdefender is close second, Malwarebytes has been laughable in the past but has since improved recently. Windows 10 has laughable security, however with Windows 11 security has improved dramatically and has shown to block many threats IF you have internet connection. If you don't have internet and malware launches, you're screwed. This article is simply exploring a possibility of Kaspersky being manipulated as a weapon. There are no signs of that being the case, just a bunch of what if.

 

[follower]

Yes. It really warms my heart to read this (Feb 2022) just before product EOS (Nov, 2022):

Cisco this week announced patches for multiple vulnerabilities in its Small Business RV160, RV260, RV340, and RV345 series routers, including critical bugs that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code with root privileges.

The most severe of these issues is CVE-2022-20699 (CVSS score of 10.0), as it allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable device. The bug exists because there aren’t sufficient boundary checks performed during the processing of specific HTTP requests.

They fixed it, finally.

When it comes from China it's intentional. When it comes from USA it just a bug, sorry. Right?

Do the states sell backdoored items on purpose like china? Nope.
Do china sell backdoored items on purpose? Yep.
Can chinese talk about Tiananmen Square Protests and Tibet? Nope. The person who talks about it will be missing.
Can The states and world talk about Tiananmen Square Protests and Tibet? Sure.
What if someone who is chinese blames Xi Jinping or above incidents on Wechat or Tiktok? The account is removed and the person will be missing.
What if someone who is from The states or other countries blame Xi Jinping or above incidents on Wechat or Tiktok? The account is removed.
This is how they are different.

List of websites blocked in mainland China - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Tech9]

Do the states sell backdoored items on purpose like china? Nope.

Yes. I have four Cisco routers with backdoor accounts. Closed after some noise. I see no big difference.

 

[follower]

Yes. I have four Cisco routers with backdoor accounts. Closed after some noise. I see no big difference.

Are you ok?

 

[Tech9]

Are you ok?

Yes. Thanks for asking. How are you?

 

[BreakingDad]

I agree - defender is more than good enough...

The thing with third-party antivirus on Windows, for them to do the job effectively, they need to have "better than admin" rights, which they usually self-assign without really mentioning it.

The Kaspersky thing with the US Govt - IIRC, there was an accidental disclosure of classified info that was exfiltrated as an infected document for review (the virus, not the actual content). The rest of the story was that it was a personal computer, not govt issued, at least that it what I heard.

Yes third party av logging is of privacy concern, security for the sake of privacy I don't buy. I make the exception for Malwarebytes.

Also I don't like the way this thread has become political, borderline xenophobic. With regret I think I will request closure.

 

[sfx2000]

Also I don't like the way this thread has become political, borderline xenophobic. With regret I think I will request closure.

I agree wholeheartedly...

 

[Tech9]

With regret I think I will request closure.

I vote for thread locking.

 

[zwitterion]

I was doing some more reading regarding Kaspersky's history and the US Gov and found this little gem:

Exclusive: How a Russian firm helped catch an alleged NSA data thief

The U.S. has accused Kaspersky Lab of working with Russian spies. But sources say the company exposed a massive breach that U.S. authorities missed.

www.politico.com

Kaspersky turned in Harold T. Martin III, an NSA contractor, whom stole 50TB's of NSA data that included sophisticated hacking tools, and NSA wasn't even aware of it. In all I'm still wary of privacy concerns with Kaspersky since I haven't been able to find detailed information about it, but I still give credit where it is earned. Kaspersky is the best AV, hands down. Bitdefender isn't as efficient but still has nearly the same detection rate, and all others are essentially AV false-positive bloatware. In total if you want both privacy and security above all other features, use Tails and QubesOS.

 

[RMerlin]

Locking this since this has turned more about politics than the actual product discussion.