Well, that’s irritating. For quite a few years I’ve been using ZoneAlarm Pro for my computer security needs. I’ve currently got three licences for three computers. It provides a firewall, antivirus, and a few odds and sods to keep my computer safe.
Or so I thought.
Today I received an email from ZoneLabs warning me of a security risk called ‘Gumblar’, in part as follows:
Gumblar is currently targeting users of IE and Google search, delivering malware through compromised sites that infects a user’s PC and subsequently intercepts traffic between the user and the visited sites. This means that once infected, anything the victim types could be monitored and used to commit identity theft, such as stealing credit card numbers, passwords or other sensitive data. Visitors encountering the compromised website also risk having their subsequent search results replaced with links that point to other malicious websites. The malware can also steal FTP credentials from the victim’s computer and use them to infect more sites, thus increasing the spread of this threat.Who is at risk?
Users of Internet Explorer and Google’s search engine.
Okay. But I’ve got the ZoneAlarm Security Suite which is supposed to be all I need to secure my computer. In fact, I pay for something I don’t really need, since I could rely on the Windows XP firewall. All I really need to add is antivirus.
But:
How do I protect myself?
If you are running ZoneAlarm® ForceField™ browser security technology you are already protected. If you are running ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, you must turn ON ForceField virtualization (Open ZoneAlarm Extreme and go to ‘browser security’, ‘settings’, ‘advanced’ and click ‘enable virtualization’).If you are only running the ZoneAlarm Pro or ZoneAlarm Security Suite, you could be at risk, since they do not include virtualization technology which protects from these types of stealth Web browser attacks. [colour in original]
Apparently, all I have to do is pay $US29.95 to save myself from Gumblar. Oh, is that for one computer or all three? And what about next week when some new form of attack develops. And the week after with a different type. Am I going to have to keep paying in dribs and drabs forever, on top of my ZoneAlarm licence?
When my licences run out I shall be going back to Windows Firewall and looking into some other antivirus.