Norton Users Worried By PIFTS.exe, Stonewalling By Symantec 685
An anonymous reader writes that "[Monday] evening, on systems with Norton Internet Protection running, users began to see a popup warning about an executable named PIFTS.exe trying to access the internet. The file was shown to be located in a non-existent folder inside the Symantec LiveUpdate folder. There were several posts about this to the Norton customer forums asking for help or information on this mysterious program. The initial thread received several thousand views and several pages of replies in a few short hours before being deleted. Several subsequent posts to the Norton forum were deleted much more quickly. These actions — whether actively covering up, or simply not well thought through — have spurred people to begin crafting conspiracy theories about the purposes of this PIFTS program. I for one am blocking the program until more information becomes available." The current top link on Google for "PIFTS.exe" links to one of these deleted questions on Norton's support boards, which sounds innocent enough: "I searched this forum but did not see PIFTS.exe. Any idea what this is?"
Skynet (Score:0, Funny)
Don't worry. (Score:5, Funny)
More conspiracy theories (Score:5, Funny)
Let's begin the conspiracy theories:
Any publicity is good publicity (Score:5, Funny)
Ping Internet For Time on Slashdot?
not to worry (Score:5, Funny)
P.I.F.T.S (Score:2, Funny)
Possible
Information
For
Terrorist
Sleeper cells
Therefore...Norton* = Terrorist.
*the slashdot user "Em Emalb" does not seriously think Norton supports terrorism, in fact, if the pounding on his door is any indicator, neither does Nort...)&(^#%)*&#^ stoptazingmePeterNorton! OWWW! Sonofa...that thing stings bro.
Re:Don't worry. (Score:3, Funny)
PIFTS Obvious what it is (Score:5, Funny)
P = Purposely
I = Introduced
F = File
T = Thieving
S = System
Re:Rootkit? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't worry. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:law enforcement back door (Score:4, Funny)
If that's true, Symantec must be dumber than I thought if they provided a backdoor to a firewall that allows said firewall to warn the user.
Re:Don't worry. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rootkit? (Score:5, Funny)
No, that's not the file. That's the noise I make in disgust everytime somebody tells me to install Norton.
I'd rather download WINDOWSANTIVIRUS.jpg.exe from bittorrent. At least that will shut up every now and then after I pay the extortion fee.
Way to treat your customers (Score:3, Funny)
PIFTS is the sound of their market share with the excellent way they are treating their customers.
I know I would be removing this from my machines.
Re:law enforcement back door (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe Norton's anti-virus is so good that even THEY can't get a virus past it? ;)
Re:pot! kettle! black! (Score:4, Funny)
What sort of response are you talking about?
timothy
Re:use a better os (Score:3, Funny)
>>>Norton is a turd....It's like a parasite that eats cycles for no reason
I have McAfee on my new laptop. Is that any better, or should I remove it immediately? Why or why not?
Weekend???? (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, you managed to uninstall Norton A/V in less than 48 hours????
PIFTS (Score:5, Funny)
Phase 2 has begun (Score:3, Funny)
I know a guy who knows someone who dated the sister of someone at symantec, and lets just say, they're going to team up with Starbucks To Begin Sinister 'Phase Two' Of Operation [theonion.com]
Re:An effort underway (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks for effort. I just hope you will have the time to do it while still following the other piece of news you have posted on your blog regarding the immediate annexation of Mexico by the U.S...
Re:An effort underway (Score:5, Funny)
There is an effort underway here http://chrysler5thavenue.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
The previous blog entry on this site is that the US is annexing Mexico. Looks like a reliable source to me.
Hmm... what else comes from Africa..... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Rootkit? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Windows Users Beware... (Score:5, Funny)
Strawman? False Dichotomy? Slippery Slope?
Man... where do I even begin to explain how bizarre this leap of logic is? Not even Evel Knievel could make this jump.
Re:Weekend???? (Score:2, Funny)
"Wow, you managed to uninstall Norton A/V in less than 48 hours????"
Yes... I did it in just 2 hours, 45 minutes.
That is, 2 hours to try unsuccessfully to uninstall Norton, and 45 minutes to say "screw this" and install Ubuntu, which very successfully fixed the Norton problem.
Re:use a better os (Score:3, Funny)
Sure, and McDonalds is the most well known and available restaurant in the world. Does that say anything about the quality of it?
Yes it does. It suggests that McDonalds doesn't poison its customers most of the time (or they wouldn't come back). Beyond that, no, not really.
Don't we all run Linux? (Score:5, Funny)
/ yet another smug, uninfected Linux user.
Re:use a better os (Score:2, Funny)
BAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAA*choke*
You remember you told me to tell you when you were being rude and obnoxious?
Re:Windows Users Beware... (Score:5, Funny)
Not even Evel Knievel could make this jump.
Is that because he is dead? Or because the gap is too far?
Re:Windows Users Beware... (Score:5, Funny)
12. Profit???
Re:A bit overkill (Score:2, Funny)
Exactly how many fucking many processes does Norton need to have running at one time???
So many that they are running out of Process ID numbers. There is a move afoot to ditch the old PIDv4 standard and adopt the new PIDv6 standard. This will a LOT more Norton processes to run, thus enhancing security.