Posted on 09/18/2017 9:37:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
CBS Local — A computer program used to help your PC run faster has reportedly become the latest victim of hackers looking to breach the security of millions of its users.
CCleaner, the computer-optimizing tool made by software company Piriform, was successfully infected by malware, according to security firm Cisco Talos. The malware reportedly tried to connect to unregistered websites in order to remotely download even more harmful programs to users’ computers.
Security experts say the Trojan horse-style attack hackers launched affected over 2 million CCleaner customers who downloaded the product in August.
“By exploiting the trust relationship between software vendors and the users of their software, attackers can benefit from users’ inherent trust in the files and web servers used to distribute updates,” researchers at Talos said.
Piriform’s parent company, Avast, released a statement after the breach was announced saying the infected software had been dealt with.
“Piriform believes that these users are safe now as its investigation indicates it was able to disarm the threat before it was able to do any harm,” an Avast spokesperson said.
“There is nothing a user could have noticed,” said Talos researcher Craig Williams. The malware expert added that a similar attack was carried out on accounting software in the Ukraine in June. The revelation is sure to be unsettling for the 130 million people who reportedly use the trusted PC cleaning tool.
ALERT PING!..............
still one of the best tools on the market
and still free for home use
Bump for later.
Thanks for the alert! I use CCleaner regularly, but don’t seem to have picked anything up. I use it right before running a test for malware, but didn’t find any. So I guess Piriform took care of the problem, for me at least.
I use BOTH CCleaner AND GLARY UTILITIES. Free for home use.
Each one seems to find stuff the other misses, so together they work real well!.....................
That isn’t even news. CC is notoriously bad.
I agree, CCleaner is a great tool.
There should be a law that convicted hackers should be automatically executed.
To: The Something For Nothing, Freebie Crowd
RE: Getting Hacked
Until you have Windows 10, a registered version, Defender enabled, you will always be available for hacking.
Well, well. I just started Windows this morning, and CCleaner must have done an update on itself. Anyway, it came right up and said it had searched for one file, found it, and eliminated it, because it was malware. I OK’d it, and then nothing would start. So I had to shut down and restart Windows, and now it seems to be working OK. Fingers crossed. I always hate it when this happens—but better than letting malware loose for a long time.
You were lucky......................this time..................
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