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134 Comments
- crapuccino, on 03/10/2009, -2/+81Symantec are the second highest company on my all-time ***** list.
I will never forgive them for buying, then *****-canning Sygate. NEVER.
Given a choice between NAV and the viruses, I'll take the viruses. They have less of an impact on system performance. - dreambig207, on 03/10/2009, -3/+73I've never trusted symantec, after I installed it my computer took forever to do anything, even booting up was a challenge, and I have a fast processor so it shouldn't do that, also i don't think it ever found any viruses, i think its a virus
- inactive, on 03/10/2009, -4/+73Customer: What is Pifts
Norton: STFU - IphtashuFitz, on 03/10/2009, -1/+51Norton/Symantecs official statement on this:
http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?b ...
If that's to be believed then the forum admins over there should be fired for simply deleting everything referring to PIFTS and not just the spam they claimed they were deleting.
And more on this from SANS:
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5992 - kostka, on 03/10/2009, -4/+45Wow, go to http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&safe=off& ... and you can see that ALL the threads on this have been deleted. Never knew Symantec had sunk that low.
- inactive, on 03/10/2009, -2/+31When are companies going to learn that you just can't silence ***** over the Internet? This is going to reach critical mass, spread all over the Internet and then they're going to be forced to give an answer anyway. And now a hundred times more people are going to hear about it as a result.
They probably would've been better off just outright saying, "It's spyware. Don't use our products if you don't like it." - rald84, on 03/10/2009, -1/+28did this come from 4chan? i saw a ton of posts on /b/ about PIFTS
- clarionhaze, on 03/10/2009, -4/+28from symantec site on pifts spammers
* O LAWD IM CHOKIN ON PIFTS PLZ HALP
* OH GOD YOU GOT CHOCOLATE IN MY PIFTS
* If you wanna be my NORTON/ you gotta deal with my P ! F T S . E X E
* IF PIFTS.EXE WAS HERE, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
* PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE
* I LOVE MY PIFTS.EXE
O LAWD IM CHOKIN ON PIFTS PLZ HALP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Mankind121, on 03/10/2009, -3/+23Problem: Norton Internet Security
Solution: Stop using Norton Internet Security - RetlawST, on 03/10/2009, -5/+23If Symantic had left the original queries in their forums open and ::gasp:: answered them, they would have avoided the spam and fake google links providing ACTUAL malware.
GG Symantic, you're a bag of dicks. - MrINSANE, on 03/10/2009, -8/+254chan was spamming there forum apparently, As in just subject line no body or text in the message. This is not some kind of cover up. If any of you would take five seconds to go to the symantec site everything is explained.
- jessemoya, on 03/10/2009, -2/+17Pilfer Information From The Sucker
- inactive, on 03/10/2009, -2/+16I haven't used any Symantec product in years for the exact reason you gave: It slows down your machine tremendously. Often, if I tried to remove whatever symantec product I had (Norton Antivirus in this case (and I can't remember what version it was)) it would cause havoc with partially deleted folders, and screwed up system settings. I pretty much had to format my drive. It's been AVG for me ever since then.
- i4mt3hwin, on 03/10/2009, -2/+15"Symantec released a diagnostic patch "PIFTS.exe" targeting Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2006 & 2007 users on March 9, 2009. This patch was released for approximately 3 hours (4:30 - 7:40 PM March 9, 2009 Pacific Time). In a case of human error, the patch was released by Symantec "unsigned", which caused the firewall user prompt for this file to access the Internet. The firewall alert for the patch caused understandable concern for users and began to be reported back to Symantec. Releasing a patch unsigned is an extremely rare occurrence that does not pose any security issues to our users. The patch reached a limited number of Norton customers and has subsequently been pulled from further distribution. Norton users are fully protected and do not need to take any action as a result of this issue.
There has been activity in the Norton User Forum related to PIFTS.exe which has generated additional concern and media speculation. At approximately 10:30pmET Monday March 9, Symantec detected that our User Forum boards were being abused by an individual or individuals. One individual created a new user account and posted about the name of the patch executable, PIFTS.exe. Within minutes, several dozen user accounts were created commenting on the initial thread, and/or creating new threads on the topic. Over the next few hours, over 200 user accounts were created. Within the first hour there were 600 new posts on this subject alone. While the intent of the spammer(s) remains unclear, there were no malicious links and it simply resulted in a widespread communications challenge for Symantec. Below are some examples of the forum spam we received from these new user accounts. These forum posts contained no text in the body of the message, simply a subject:
* O LAWD IM CHOKIN ON PIFTS PLZ HALP
* OH GOD YOU GOT CHOCOLATE IN MY PIFTS
* If you wanna be my NORTON/ you gotta deal with my P ! F T S . E X E
* IF PIFTS.EXE WAS HERE, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
* PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE
* I LOVE MY PIFTS.EXE
Symantec strictly adheres to its Norton Community Terms of Service and does not delete postings unless they are in violation of these guidelines. Upon determining that our User Forums were being abused, Symantec began removing the spam posts.
Finally, it has also been reported by the Washington Post that hackers are taking advantage of this situation. "Some of the top searches (currently the 3rd and 4th result in a Google search) are Web sites that try to install malicious software when you visit them." When searching for information on "pifts.exe," Symantec strongly advises all users to be wary of following links to unknown sites as malicious users are attempting to use this hot topic to distribute malware." - NYankee2003, on 03/10/2009, -0/+13i take it real player and their updater is number one?
- Kotoyumu, on 03/10/2009, -0/+12Wonders what the internet would be like without trolls...
- SuperOmegaSlack, on 03/10/2009, -0/+12From the comment section:
-"This is one of the reasons why I use Apple products only. No viruses. No Anti-Virus installs to update the software. No *****.
reply"
--"oh give it a rest, it has more to do with the measly 6% market share. That or nobody wants access to a bunch of self portrait pictures, no matter how ‘trendy’ they might be."
I'm no fanboy, but that's just a funny response. - rpong1981, on 03/10/2009, -3/+15http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?b ...
enough said - RetlawST, on 03/10/2009, -1/+12The spam was a backlash at Symantic systematically deleting any thread that mentioned PIFTS, including the original threads that were legitimate questions about the service.
- subxero37, on 03/10/2009, -0/+10I figure, when you need to download and use a special removal tool for a paid piece of software, and it doesn't even remove it completely, you probably should stay away from that software.
And the removal tool has a built-in CAPTCHA, believe it or not. I guess that's a protective measure, but really, how many malware programs out there would try to uninstall Norton using the official uninstaller? They'd probably do it manually: delete the folders, delete the registry entries, few other things, done. - i4mt3hwin, on 03/10/2009, -3/+12"Symantec released a diagnostic patch "PIFTS.exe" targeting Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2006 & 2007 users on March 9, 2009. This patch was released for approximately 3 hours (4:30 - 7:40 PM March 9, 2009 Pacific Time). In a case of human error, the patch was released by Symantec "unsigned", which caused the firewall user prompt for this file to access the Internet. The firewall alert for the patch caused understandable concern for users and began to be reported back to Symantec. Releasing a patch unsigned is an extremely rare occurrence that does not pose any security issues to our users. The patch reached a limited number of Norton customers and has subsequently been pulled from further distribution. Norton users are fully protected and do not need to take any action as a result of this issue.
There has been activity in the Norton User Forum related to PIFTS.exe which has generated additional concern and media speculation. At approximately 10:30pmET Monday March 9, Symantec detected that our User Forum boards were being abused by an individual or individuals. One individual created a new user account and posted about the name of the patch executable, PIFTS.exe. Within minutes, several dozen user accounts were created commenting on the initial thread, and/or creating new threads on the topic. Over the next few hours, over 200 user accounts were created. Within the first hour there were 600 new posts on this subject alone. While the intent of the spammer(s) remains unclear, there were no malicious links and it simply resulted in a widespread communications challenge for Symantec. Below are some examples of the forum spam we received from these new user accounts. These forum posts contained no text in the body of the message, simply a subject:
* O LAWD IM CHOKIN ON PIFTS PLZ HALP
* OH GOD YOU GOT CHOCOLATE IN MY PIFTS
* If you wanna be my NORTON/ you gotta deal with my P ! F T S . E X E
* IF PIFTS.EXE WAS HERE, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
* PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE
* I LOVE MY PIFTS.EXE
Symantec strictly adheres to its Norton Community Terms of Service and does not delete postings unless they are in violation of these guidelines. Upon determining that our User Forums were being abused, Symantec began removing the spam posts.
Finally, it has also been reported by the Washington Post that hackers are taking advantage of this situation. "Some of the top searches (currently the 3rd and 4th result in a Google search) are Web sites that try to install malicious software when you visit them." When searching for information on "pifts.exe," Symantec strongly advises all users to be wary of following links to unknown sites as malicious users are attempting to use this hot topic to distribute malware."
http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?b ... - NYankee2003, on 03/10/2009, -5/+13i am not authorized to discuss what pifts.exe does at this time, but for a $49.95 12-month subscription, i'll answer your question
- kelmaster1, on 03/10/2009, -0/+7Norton is a virus. It requires you to pay for updates and it will stay on your computer unless you go through your files and registry and manually delete them. Also Norton sucks as a virus scanner and I've never seen a anti virus that hogs so much damn resources.
AVG is good, although if your willing to spend some money get NOD32, by far the best antivirus. - t0x2c, on 03/10/2009, -0/+6This blog post is misleading, it makes it sound as he was the first one to post anything about PIFTS.EXE. 'eBaumsworld' was posting about it as early as last night.
The spammers got there first and caused inconvenience to all of the properly concerned users. The reason they got there first? Simple: they were the only ones on their personal computers when this update was released (like 3 am pacific time). - inactive, on 03/10/2009, -1/+7The evidence is Symantec.
- pentalive, on 03/10/2009, -0/+6I suppose it's a good thing that PIFTS got released unsigned. We might not have ever heard of it otherwise.
- sporad1c, on 03/10/2009, -1/+6It's all about NOD32. I agree with crapuccino Norton is actually worse than a virus as far as system speed.
- consonance, on 03/10/2009, -3/+8"* O LAWD IM CHOKIN ON PIFTS PLZ HALP
* OH GOD YOU GOT CHOCOLATE IN MY PIFTS
* If you wanna be my NORTON/ you gotta deal with my P ! F T S . E X E
* IF PIFTS.EXE WAS HERE, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
* PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE PIFTS.EXE
* I LOVE MY PIFTS.EXE"
This is what happens when 4chan becomes sentient. - antiver, on 03/10/2009, -1/+6PIFTS - Psychological Information Feedback & Tracking System
- drastik21, on 03/10/2009, -0/+5LOL, I bet you don't know what "gaming" is either.
- GoIgo13, on 03/10/2009, -0/+5It's a goddamn lie.
I've been watching this entire thing from the beginning. I first learned about it via. 4chan on /g/ and there wasn't any spam taking place on the symantec forums at the time.
Any and all PIFTS.exe threads were being deleted long before the spam. The deletion is what caused the spam. Anon made a thread on 4chan's /g/ forum, pointing out that the threads were being deleted. Some members came here and made legit threads inquiring about it which were also deleted. Every thread pertaining to the subject was deleted within minutes to seconds and the user accounts banned.
In light of this behavior, it caught the attention of /b/ and that's when several people from there raided and the spam attacks began.
Since the mass censorship and banning is what provoked the spam, it cannot be used as an excuse for all the deletions and bannings that occurred prior to triggering said spam attack. - twiztidsinz, on 03/10/2009, -1/+6Good cover-up...
They're using "spammers" to justify deleting / banning of accounts.
Symantic = *****
Symantec strictly adheres to its Norton Community Terms of Service and does not delete postings unless they are in violation of these guidelines. Upon determining that our User Forums were being abused, Symantec began removing the spam posts.
Finally, it has also been reported by the Washington Post that hackers are taking advantage of this situation. "Some of the top searches (currently the 3rd and 4th result in a Google search) are Web sites that try to install malicious software when you visit them." When searching for information on "pifts.exe," Symantec strongly advises all users to be wary of following links to unknown sites as malicious users are attempting to use this hot topic to distribute malware.
Read: Dont use the googles to find out about the PIFTS file!!!!! - Rainemaker, on 03/10/2009, -0/+5I'm embarrased to say I just bought and installed NAV 2009 a week ago to try and clean out some malware. Last night I uninstalled it because it was the worst thing to ever happen to my computer in the history of everness.
Malwarebytes (free scan which caught the malware) out performed NAV's scan which was unable to detect the malware problem I was having. Incidently, Malwarebytes out performed Spybot S&D and adaware as well.
I've decided to think of the 40 dollars I wasted on it as karma to the internet gods for various atrocities I have committed against the holders of myriad intellectual property rights. - latrosicarius, on 03/10/2009, -0/+5they kept creating user accounts and threads because norton explained NOTHING and kept deleting threads/banning accounts.
what the ***** did they think was going to happen? Did they think people would be like "oh well, i guess i'll never know why this mysterious executable on my system just tried to dial home without my permission... i'll just forget about it and go back to my business since norton won't answer me and banned my account"
I hope norton sinks. Haven't used them for years. Their products are *****, they infest your system making it near impossible to turn it off or get rid of it, they slow down your performance, and they constantly nag you.
The only reason norton is still in business is because people who buy OEMs are often dumbasses and don't know they would be better off canning the 1 year prepaid norton subscription and downloading a real antivirus solution. - Chairboy, on 03/10/2009, -2/+7The Sygate firewall is now the engine in Symantec Endpoint Protection (corporate). Just sayin'
- Chairboy, on 03/10/2009, -1/+5Curious, are you being dug down by folks who have an axe to grind w/ Symantec? Or by people upset that you're spoiling a 4chan troll-run? Because you're correct.
- Drahkir, on 03/10/2009, -1/+5It's douchebags like you that makes normal Mac users look bad.
- Khast, on 03/10/2009, -3/+7Upon a fresh install of WindowsXP (Using my recovery disk), Norton and all Symantec junk is removed within the first 5 minutes of the fresh install. I prefer System Suite, or AVG, they both run fast smooth, and don't seem to tie up resources. (If I have any doubts about a virus, I run a web check at Trend Micro's Housecall, which usually is updated before AVG, Norton, Mcaffee, ect.)
- newbill123, on 03/10/2009, -0/+4Symantec can't properly blame a media panic over this. Their first "attempt" at communication was silence. And they got what they properly deserved.
Whether PIFTS is a real security violation or false alarm, they now need to address the hypothetical situations people were worried about with PIFTS, not just PIFTS itself. - staffa, on 03/10/2009, -0/+4Oh wow, I suggest you close your eyes, turn around and walk away.
You are not gonna like what you find if you go down this rabbit hole.
Though I am curious, how would you expect an anti virus program to keep updated without sending current version info to a server periodically? - uptwolait, on 03/10/2009, -0/+4Whenever I send something out over the internet that was a mistake, I just go to my Outlook "sent" folder and delete it.
Done! - GoIgo13, on 03/10/2009, -0/+4Common Sense Security Suite 2009 Edition is the best antivirus you can have.
Unfortunately it can't be bought in any store, so people who know nothing about computers opt for security through obscurity.
If Mac/Linux ever gained significant market share, you'd be having all the same problems as the PC users that don't have aforementioned security. - ryan83189, on 03/10/2009, -0/+4Pretty good for free. Saved me 3 times now, once from a virus that spreads via USB drive. I got it from a machine with all sorts of AV software so I was a little shocked to see it caught it within a second of being plugged in.
- IphtashuFitz, on 03/10/2009, -0/+4I'm not saying that the general gist of the post shouldn't be believed. But that post makes it sound like all the posts that were deleted were spam when in fact there's a lot of evidence to show that wasn't the case. It seems much more likely that they simply deleted every post that mentioned PIFTS earlier in the day rather than actually try to weed through what was and wasn't spam. The SANS posting is just one example demonstrating how what appear to be legitimate non-spam posts were deleted in their rush to delete all those spam posts. So either the admins were incompetent and deleted a lot of valid customer messages or they're <tinfoil_hat=on> using the spam to try to cover up deleting those messages.
- jf76, on 03/10/2009, -1/+5Who the hell still uses Symantec products?
PIFTS = personal information and file tracking system - yaosio, on 03/10/2009, -0/+3Ok gang, let's take this mask off and see who it really is...Symantec?
And we would have gotten away with it too, if it were not for Windows and it's meddling firewall! - CLAWC, on 03/10/2009, -1/+4PIFTS = Rootkit
=) - zomgz, on 03/10/2009, -0/+3AVAST ftw
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