142 replies to this topic

[elohelomg]

I'm not sure, but is having the same "virus name" illegal? Just to clear this up? Because i was browsing through their forums, and I noticed they conduct some tests, putting their product against yours...

[DragonMaster Jay]

Malwarebytes' DB gets stolen by IOBit, action requested

I just published a news article to help spread the word about it.

[pifreak]

I have been peeping around these forums for a bit and finally made a forums account.

I will email all the sites but can't find a proper e-mail to contact download.com/cnet or brothersoft

Could someone post here and/or message me a list of e-mails who host IOBit software?


Thanks for the help and best wishes for the Malwarebytes team!

[GT500]

elohelomg said:

... But like i said, if you guys are 100% sure, I cannot suggest anything else. I can only ask that you hear their side of the story.

As Bruce mentioned in a reply above, fake (and quite harmless) 'malware' was created, and not published. IOBit had no access to it, but the detection was added to the MBAM database. It became obvious theft when IOBit began detecting something that wasn't real with almost the same name that we use, and which was not made public until today. There is no other possible conclusion. It defies logic that they could have done anything other than steal the database.

Their side of the story should be "We are sorry, and we will stop stealing the databases of other vendors." They should also offer to pay the various vendors for the use of their databases.

What has happened here is not just unethical or immoral. It is illegal.

[elohelomg]

Then i have nothing further to say. I await Iobit's response...

[roddy32]

I just heard back from Lee Koo at CNET. Coming from him the download.com people may get on this quickly.

Quote

Thanks Rod... very interesting.

I’ll forward it to a few people from the Download.com team.

Thanks!
-Lee

[GT500]

roddy32 said:

I just heard back from Lee Koo at CNET. Coming from him the download.com people may get on this quickly.

Thank you for your assistance.

[Swandog46]

elohelomg said:

I'm not sure, but is having the same "virus name" illegal?

As GT500 said above, the indication of theft is not solely that they name some things the same way -- at least not for real malware. Many vendors do that. However, since the fake name Rogue.AVCleanSweepPro we made up does not actually exist anywhere in the wild, that alone would be an indication of theft.

The real indication of theft though is that they detect, under the same names, fake files that we (1) built ourselves internally, (2) never released to the internet, and (3) added fake definitions for to our own database. The only explanation is that they are stealing the definitions directly from our database.

EDIT: to clarify details.

Edited by Swandog46, 02 November 2009 - 05:09 PM.

[specialforce]

The thing is, China plays by different rules - intellectual property is not deemed as important over there as in North America and Europe. Most Chinese would actually not see a problem with this at all, so there's probably not a lot you can do to fix this apart from raise awareness and get it removed off some download sites.

Quite audacious, really. I suppose you have to give them some credit for the sheer blatant cheek of it all!

[MarkAW]

Emailed both and even posted about their ethical issues here.
http://www.mywot.com...bit.com#comment

[ipl_001]

Hi Swandog, hi everyone,

Very nice (beautiful) to see so many people at bottom of the screen! Wow! The anti-malware community is alerted!

Okay to follow your instructions, coordinate our posts and not write subjective words.

With you all at MB of course.

Specialforce posted about behavior in China; I read it might be similar in India!
Sorry if I didn't read carefully everything... what do IOBit say if you complain?

[DragonMaster Jay]

Haha funny thing is...a lot of people are testing it, too. I wonder if any one else has noticed so far. I saw the detection of Malwarebytes lots of times, and then I saw detection of IOBit, and I will agree I have seen fully similar malware names.

The funny part was this: http://www.iobit.com/testnow.html

[chimpy]

I added my own say in WOT and informed friends that use iobit, This is poor form from them indeed.

[ipl_001]

Howdy,

MarkAW, on Nov 2 2009, 11:26 PM, said:

Emailed both and even posted about their ethical issues here.
http://www.mywot.com...bit.com#comment

Quote

Ethical issues 4

I registered at Wot long ago: I'm going to add my comment too!

[DragonMaster Jay]

It should get quite a bit of comments on WOT: http://www.mywot.com/en/forum/4775-iobit-s...ectual-property

[YoKenny1]

I posted on avast! forum:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=480...27701#msg427701

Illegitimi non carborundum

[evilfantasy]

Just for the record I stopped posting at IObit a few months back for a few different reasons. Didn't see this coming but I can't say I'm surprised either.

[Mark]

specialforce, on Nov 2 2009, 05:22 PM, said:

The thing is, China plays by different rules - intellectual property is not deemed as important over there as in North America and Europe. Most Chinese would actually not see a problem with this at all, so there's probably not a lot you can do to fix this apart from raise awareness and get it removed off some download sites.

I like to look at the bright side of things : it's never too late to learn

Great job Team. :thumbsUp:

Cheers,

[ipl_001]

Quote

Ethical issues 29

( http://www.mywot.com...obit.com#page-1 )

[Jasper the Rasper]

ipl_001, on Nov 2 2009, 11:08 PM, said:

( http://www.mywot.com...obit.com#page-1 )

That makes it look pretty conclusive as regards their ethics.