Update. August 5th 1:30 PM PDT. I received an email from Mr. Carl Haugen, the president of BluePenguin Software who develop SPYzooka. According to Mr. Haugen the offending post was made by a former employee and has now been removed. I have verified that the post was removed. This is an encouraging sign. I will also note that BluePenguin is an accreditted member of the Better Business Bureau and has a good track record of resolving customer complaints.
A friend of mine from the respected Indian antivirus company Quick Heal Technologies recently brought two posts on the web to my attention.
http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/do-not-trust-quick-heal-antivirus-plus-2009-987981.html is an article written by someone who does not wish to disclose who they are. The article is pure fiction. Remember, articlebase.com does not validate content so I would assume everything there is wrong unless I independently verified the facts elsewhere.
The second link, and in my opinion the likely source of the fictitious article is http://bluepenguinsoftware.com/spyzooka/blog/removal-instructions-for-quickhealantivirusplus2009/
The author of the “blog”, Carl Haugen, claims:
“Like other rogues, it claims to be beneficial but in actuality it is malevolent. Instead of helping remove threats, it will download spyware, Trojan horse apps, adware, and other malware.”
I’m not a lawyer, but I have advised my friend that if Quick Heal chooses to sue BluePenguin Software for libel, I would be happy to testify on behalf of Quick Heal. It sure looks like a slam-dunk libel case to me.
It is possible that the folks at BluePenguin downloaded a pirated, cracked version of the program, but if they had downloaded the program from the developer’s web site they would have a legitimate antivirus product.
If you do your research on Quick Heal, you will find that they are tested by Virus Bulletin, have 27 VB 100 awards, 10 failures, and 28 no entries. Spyzooka does not participate in VB testing.
Quick Heal is certified by Westcoast labs Checkmark certification for both antivirus and spyware. Spyzooka is not certified.
Quick Heal is a corporate member of AVAR, the Association of Asia Antivirus Researchers, where I sit on the board of directors with my friend Sanjay Katkar of Quick Heal.
I don’t see any industry related, professional organizations that BluePenguin participates in. They aren’t even members of the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC), which you would expect from a legitimate anti-spyware focused company. Currently Quick Heal is not a member of the ASC either, but I have recommended they join.
I won’t comment on the quality of Spyzooka, as I have not tested it or seen any legitimate tests of it, but the blatant dishonesty of their President would not lead me to consider the product.
Yeah, Quick Heal is a competitor of ESET’s, but that is no reason to let a wrong stand un-righted. We’ll go toe to toe with Quick Heal based upon the merits of our product, but we wouldn’t stoop so low as to call a legitimate antivirus product a rogue.
Randy Abrams
Director of Technical Education
