back to article TSMC chip fab tools hit by virus, payment biz BGP hijacked, CCleaner gets weird – and more

This week we took a close look at Google security keys, bid adieu to Facebook's head security honcho, and had a few email credentials overshared by Atlassian. Here's everything else that happened in infosec land this week beyond what we've already reported. TSMC chip assembly line computers infected Chipmaker TSMC – which …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah thanks Facebook - Pseudo-Anonymous and all that

    "Piriform said that even when its Active Monitoring tool is turned off, it will still collect, for its own internal analytics, some anonymized information, such as the installed version, which features have been used, and details useful for hunting bugs. The developer, though vague on exactly what is slurped, assured users that the snooping was nothing to be afraid of."

  2. Snowy Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Off means I opt out

    "Piriform said that even when its Active Monitoring tool is turned off, it will still collect, for its own internal analytics, some anonymized information, such as the installed version, which features have been used, and details useful for hunting bugs. The developer, though vague on exactly what is slurped, assured users that the snooping was nothing to be afraid of."

    When you collect data you should always say what and why you are collecting and above all allow me to opt out of it!

    1. Tom Chiverton 1

      Re: Off means I opt out

      Illegal not to in Europe...

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

        Re: Off means I opt out

        If you're thinking that it's illegal according to GDPR then it is not as this covers Personal Data only.

        The complication is likely to come from the fact that the data is delivered across the Internet and therefore the sending system's IP address can be recorded and IP addresses are considered Personal Data.

    2. BillG
      Boffin

      Re: Off means I opt out

      Nowadays a software upgrade isn't always a good thing. I've stayed on older versions of software & mobile apps because it's better than the latest version. That's why I'm still using CCleaner v5.27.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We Snoop

    We dont tell you WHAT we snoop, but you REALLY don't have to be afraid.

    REALLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: We Snoop

      Fear leads to GDPR.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Back to older versions without the snooping, just like winslurp - any advance on 7?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Linux's leaky timer bug

    “A researcher have detailed a bug in the Linux kernel that can be exploited to leak sensitive data”

    Shouldn't that be a 'computer' timer bug, like the virus that infected the TSMC 'computers'

  6. gal5

    It has several background services

    Blocked CCleaner on firewall.

    BUT, it does something else, too - anvir keeps popping warnings about CCleaner trying to install a startup item (which I keep sending to Quarantine), probably the tool to collect info.

    Big Question is, how does it do that, when IT IS NOT RUNNING?? searched with msconfig for anything by piriform.. nothing

    (command line is

    "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe" /MONITOR

    1. gal5

      Re: It has several background services

      Answering myself - I haven't noticed that launching CCleaner starts 2 ccleaner64.exe processes.. the 2nd remains behind to do the spying and keep try startup installation

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It has several background services

      > Big Question is, how does it do that, when IT IS NOT RUNNING??

      As an off-the-top-of-my-head guess, take a look through Scheduled Tasks. On Win7, that's an item in the Control Panel -> Admin section. It's a useful place to put some stuff, equivalent to cron jobs on *nix.

      1. MikeGH

        Re: It has several background services

        Try https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns to see an awful lot of things that gets auto-started for you.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Piriform was purchased by Avast

    Avast has a history of ignoring opt-out buttons/tick boxes.

    Take a look at Avast's forums regarding the newly purchased CC Cleaner where users claim that Avast's "antivirus" program was installed as a bundle with CC Cleaner.

    There is another interesting thread on the Avast forums about processes being installed on users devices and one of the developers makes an unusual comment in the forums saying he was wondering when someone was going to notice it.

    It was during the takeover of Pririform by Avast when the CC Cleaner was found to have a backdoor embedded in it.

    Not a good look for a so-called "security" company to bundle extra stuff in an installer much like malware they claim to protect against.

    1. Waseem Alkurdi

      Re: Piriform was purchased by Avast

      Not a good look for a so-called "security" company to bundle extra stuff in an installer much like malware they claim to protect against.

      The excuse is either one of two:

      - Well, it's us, the good guys!

      - The bread on the table has to come from somewhere, eh?

      1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

        Re: Piriform was purchased by Avast

        Kids these days have never heard of TANSTAAFL ... (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch).

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'Not a good look for a so-called "security" company'

      Security? They're just another wannabee Facebook.... There's lots of sneaky Ad-led consolidation in the Security / AV business into little Facebooks happening now... Class comment right here:

      ~~~~~

      “Free antivirus or not, 400 million is still a significant number,” - “That alone gives you some pretty powerful insight into the market and what’s on people’s systems.” - "We didn’t have a big concern about “normal” users getting upset, because they don’t really know which company owns the underlying technology. How many WhatsApp users know that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook?"

      https://www.the-parallax.com/2016/09/30/what-buyout-means-400-million-avast-avg-users-qa/

      ~~~~~

      "Avast – another anti-virus big-hitter – recently announced plans to make use of anonymised user data to develop marketing analytics"

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/14/avg_anon_data_brokering_analysis/

  8. razorfishsl

    Those TSMC were supposed to be off line and air gapped.

    Sounds more like an inside job because their CEO has been pushed out again.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wonder if they deploy the equipment vendor latest security patches, or just not bother...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Avast and AVG are now one. AVG deliberately spaffed users details to distribution partners when they shifted from direct sales to channel only, so they already have a bad rep for privacy. Piriform CCleaner has been caught installing spyware browser toolbars as part of it's installer bundle in the past, an activity which went on for ages. They pleaded innocent and said it was down to distributors that re-bundled their installer, ignoring the fact that they are the ones that choose who distributes their product and they most likely got a "per install" kick-back for the extra bits. I wouldn't trust them with anything.

    Q. Why would you install this crap on your PC in the first place?

  10. davidddd

    I got hit by the Namecheap problem as well so it definitely affected multiple customers.

  11. adam payne

    Piriform said it will be updating the tool soon to highlight exactly what is gobbled up when Active Monitoring is switched on and off – and has pulled version 5.45 for now.

    You should have been honest and told people what was going on instead you pull the version and tell everyone you'll change it. It makes you look guilty.

  12. ByTheSea

    If you turn off Active Monitoring it later turns itself on again. Sneaky and not welcome.

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