Last night charter internet's free anti viral program f-secure loaded something called security extension on my computer. It needs to be activated. Do I want to do that and why? As far as I can understand the little they say about it it is an electronic nanny but there is little plain English information available .
Question for the computer savvy
A word from our sponsor:
Comments
Browser extension?
I do not use f-secure myself, but according to what documentation I could find on f-secure's website, this is a browser extension to supply information to the user about the websites that are blocked instead of simply giving an error page.
So you might consider using it if you want additional information, but it seems that f-secure will block harmful web content anyway. This extension does not increase security, it is just for better explanation of *why* something was blocked.
thank you
Thanks for taking the time to look at it Rigid. I guess my concern is the permissions it requires. If that is all it does I don't think it's a fair trade off.
Harmful?
These days that is in the eye of the beholder.
There are many who would consider BigCloset to be harmful.
More seriously, I would be extremely suspicious of any code that deigned to download itself to any of my kit without me asking it to. It may purport to be from f-secure but how do you know? How can you tell that it hasn't loaded other stuff in the background, like somebody else's bitcoin miner?
Ugh. Remove, swiftly, if you can.
ahh, you begin to see the light Penny.
Shall we name software used by most everyone that does that unless you force it to ask first?
Flash plugin.
Windows / Microsoft Update
Adobe CS Updater
Firefox
Chrome
The "automatic update" means that the software in question is, by legal definition, a trojan downloader.
The legal definition: Any software that can download, install and active other software WITHOUT user interaction is a trojan downloader and is also known as malware.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
Slightly incorrect ...
That is NOT correct - if those downloads are authorized by the user or admin, it is not a trojan downloader. Automating processes is perfectly fine as long as it is done with proper authorization. If you have assented to those actions, there is no need for further interaction, although proper reporting/logging should happen (and is IMHO an indicator for software that was at least not meant to be used maliciously by its designer).
authorization != interaction
Please do not confuse these.
most software does this
to update, or increase its presense. some require you to be more attentive to notice the auto approval, to either deny the auto so it has to ask each time, or you get a bunch of bloat ware that is usually harmless, except what it does to the performance of your PC.
i think you are ok either way, an extension takes little room or resources.
Teresa L.
Updates
I have two desktops; one runs on OpenSUSE Linux and the other one MS Windows 10 (because my biggest client uses an app that doesn't run on Linux). Both systems tell me when an update is available, but the Linux updater lists the names of the apps or files that are going to be updated, and cannot update without my authorisation. Windows offers me the choice of deferring update, but is tight-lipped about what is actually being updated, apart from "improving functionality" or "security". If you don't know what an application, update or extension is supposed to do, look it up!
Speaker
thanks
Thanks for your help everyone. I guess for now I won't activate it as I see little benefit.