Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/21/check_point_pop_up_row_climb_down/
Check Point kills scareware-style pop-up campaign
Waves white flag
Posted in Security, 21st September 2010 12:21 GMT
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Check Point has backed down in a row over a controversial scareware-style pop-up message warning to users of its ZoneAlarm personal firewall product, admitting that it got it wrong, and withdrawing the marketing campaign.
The row began after ZoneAlarm users were hit by a warning that their PCs 'may be in danger' from a newly found variant of the infamous ZeuS banking Trojan in a bid to encourage them to upgrade to a paid-for version of the product, with built-in anti-virus defences. In addition, the buy-an-upgrade page cheekily disparaged the ability of competitors (including AVG, Avira and Norton) to handle the threat. The pop-up warning was displayed whether or not the machine was infected with anything - the free version of ZoneAlarm is not even outfitted with an anti-virus scanner.
Critics were quick to slam Check Point, which markets ZoneAlarm, for adopting tactics little different from those of scareware scammers. Meanwhile users howled protests [1] at the pushy marketing tactics on ZoneAlarm forums.
Initially Check Point defended its marketing tactics as educating users about a threat by "proactively alerting users". The statement, issued on Monday, failed to placate criticism prompting Check Point into a u-turn. The security software firm has now promised to stop pushing the pop-up messages after conceding, via an update [2] to the official ZoneAlarm Twitter profile, that it might be taken as a warning that a machine was infected.
After listening to consumer feedback, we realised that it was misinterpreted and have turned the popup message off.
The climb-down cuts a sharp contrast to an earlier unapologetic statement [3] from the security software firm.
"It was never our intent to lead customers to believe they have a virus on their computer," said an initial statement. "This was purely an informative message about a legitimate and serious virus that also included information about the differences in protection of various products, and how to get protection against it." ®