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The Malwarebytes Corporation, makers of the excellent anti-malware software of the same name, have discovered that a Chinese rival has been stealing from its database of malware samples and flagging a specific keygen code for the Malwarebytes software using the exact same naming scheme.  When Malwarebytes confronted the vendor, IObit, about the theft, the company denied it and claimed it was just a technical glitch and that Malwarebytes was being malicious by spreading rumors.  However MB ran a test on the shady software, called Security 360, by adding definitions for a fake rogue anti-virus program to its data base.  Security 360 almost immediately added the fake definitions to its own database and used an almost identical naming scheme.

“So we dug further. We accumulated more similar evidence for other detections, and we soon became convinced that this was not a mistake, it was not a coincidence, it was not an isolated event, and it persisted presently in their current database. They are using both our database and our database format exactly.” The company reported in a blog post. “During the course of our investigation, we uncovered additional evidence that IObit may have stolen the proprietary databases of other security vendors as well. We are in the process of contacting these vendors.”

Malwarebytes intends to pursue legal action against IObit.  This incident is a good reminder to always stick with well known security apps like MalwareBytes, Spybot Search and Destroy, AVG, AdAware and others.  Never download a security app you’ve never hear of or one you see advertised in a pop up or spam message.

Malwarebytes is one of the best anti-malware apps around. It’s fast, easy to use, powerful and doesn’t hog system resources.  It supports multi-drive scanning which includes networked drives.  There is a free version available but for real-time protection (which prevents malware infections from ever happening) and the ability to schedule regular scans, spring for the paid version, which is just $24.95.  The protection and piece of mind are worth it!