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Zone Alarm Users
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:42 pm
by R00k
Apparently Zone Alarm phones home regularly to their servers.
You can add this to your hosts file to prevent it from reaching the zonelabs servers:
# Block access to ZoneLabs Server
127.0.0.1 zonelabs.com
Story here:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/ ... ley_1.html
A Perfect Spy? It seems that ZoneAlarm Security Suite has been phoning home, even when told not to. Last fall, InfoWorld Senior Contributing Editor James Borck discovered ZA 6.0 was surreptitiously sending encrypted data back to four different servers, despite disabling all of the suite’s communications options. Zone Labs denied the flaw for nearly two months, then eventually chalked it up to a “bug” in the software -- even though instructions to contact the servers were set out in the program’s XML code. A company spokesmodel says a fix for the flaw will be coming soon and worried users can get around the bug by modifying their Host file settings. However, there’s no truth to the rumor that the NSA used ZoneAlarm to spy on U.S. citizens.
Zone Alarm is an Israeli company since being bought by Checkpoint in 2004.
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:43 pm
by Freakaloin
like i said...the internets main purpose is so govt can track ppl...
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:45 pm
by +JuggerNaut+
or how about stop using it.
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:49 pm
by R00k
That would be my take on it. But then I've never liked ZoneAlarm to begin with. Hasbro-interfaced bloatware.
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:27 pm
by DiscoDave
Freakaloin wrote:like i said...the internets main purpose is so govt can track ppl...
Re: Zone Alarm Users
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:38 am
by sliver
R00k wrote:# Block access to ZoneLabs Server
127.0.0.1 zonelabs.com
Will that also stop it from checking for updates?
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:50 am
by Massive Quasars
I stopped using ZoneAlarm when it wouldn't let me boot into Windows after a fuxored install. A pain in the ass to fix.
Great software. If I were so inclined I would chalk it up as a part of the greater Zionist conspiracy, but one Geoff is enough.
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:20 am
by BlueGene
Most people can use their router or modem to restrict port/ip access.
Re: Zone Alarm Users
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:23 am
by R00k
sliver wrote:R00k wrote:# Block access to ZoneLabs Server
127.0.0.1 zonelabs.com
Will that also stop it from checking for updates?
Good question. I don't know, but yea I assume their updates come from the same servers. I guess you could unblock it and check for updates manually.
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:26 am
by R00k
Massive Quasars wrote:I stopped using ZoneAlarm when it wouldn't let me boot into Windows after a fuxored install. A pain in the ass to fix.
Great software. If I were so inclined I would chalk it up as a part of the greater Zionist conspiracy, but one Geoff is enough.
That sucks. Most firewalls can screw up your network routing if they have problems, but not allowing Windows to boot is pretty bad.
As far as the Zionist conspiracy..... Yea, not so much. But I thought I'd mention the ownership for two reasons. One, it was in the article I originally read about the problem. Secondly, a year or so ago there was a big stink about a bunch of Israeli software/tech companies who were putting backdoors into their publicly available software. I thought if anybody else here had read about it, it would be relevant.