Kaspersky replaces Free Antivirus with Security Cloud Free

[Karlston]

Kaspersky replaces Free Antivirus with Security Cloud Free

Internet users who try to download the free antivirus solution Kaspersky Free Antivirus from the Russian security company are redirected to the Kaspersky Security Cloud Free download page instead.

 

The Russian company released Kaspersky Free Antivirus in 2016 to select regions and began the worldwide rollout of the free software program in 2017.

 

The free antivirus solution evolved over time, in no small part caused by changing requirements of computer users. Kaspersky Free evolved to a different program and Kaspersky made (German blog article) the decision to change the name to better reflect the program's functionality.

 

Kaspersky Security Cloud Free was born and it has replaced the classic Antivirus Free solution already on the Kaspersky website.

 

Note: While Kaspersky Free Antivirus is no longer available, it is still working and Kaspersky revealed that it has no immediate plans to stop supporting the program with antivirus definitions. For now, the solution should work just like before.

 

The classic free antivirus solution offered limited functionality. It included protection against viruses and could protect emails and web browsing next to that. Upgrades were available to add more protections and security tools.

 

 

Kaspersky Security Cloud Free offers comparable functionality for the most part. Core differences include that the solution is also available for the mobile operating systems Android and iOS, and that the VPN service Kaspersky Secure Connection is included automatically (but limited to 200 Megabytes per day of traffic).

 

Android users may use the free version to manage application permissions and remove unwanted apps from the device.

 

Kaspersky integrated additional tools into the application. Many of these are reserved for the commercial personal or family plans but some are available in the free version. Tools that are provided to free users include a file shredder to securely delete files, a utility to clean unused data or activity traces, and a Windows troubleshooter designed to analyse the impact that a successful malware attack had on a system.

Closing Words

Free remains free, that is a good thing especially since Kaspersky Free Antivirus users will continue to receive signature updates for the application for the time being.

 

When I see cloud, I assume that more data flows between the application and servers on the Internet. Whether that is the case here as well remains to be seen. Free users don't really get more functionality, apart from the barely usable free version of Secure Connection, some tools, and the mobile apps.

 

 

Source: Kaspersky replaces Free Antivirus with Security Cloud Free (gHacks - Martin Brinkmann)

[steven36]

Martin Brinkmann just figure that out?  Kaspersky posted this news back  in Oct 7, 2019  on there English blog   not just there German blog.

https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/security-cloud-free/28890/

 

But it been out longer  than  that here is a review  for it from August 2019

https://www.pcmag.com/review/355337/kaspersky-free

 

I read that if you try too run it with malwarebytes you have to disable  anti ransomware protection   in malwarebytes  or it will cause Windows to freeze  up but whats new  back when i used Kasperky back in like 2007 and 2008  on XP  if you try to run  it with Spyware Doctor  it would cause BSOD .

 

 

[steven36]

Here  is a honest review  of it from 5 months  ago.

 

Kaspersky Security Cloud: Free (and paid) - YOU are the product. KASPERSKY spies on you.

 

Always remember: There is no such thing as "Free" commercial software.

 

I installed Kaspersky Security Cloud Free yesterday and I actually READ the terms of service and privacy policies, and their "Data processing for marketing purposes" agreement. I actually spent around 20 minutes reading them entirely, because I knew that "free" always has some catch... and indeed, there are a lot of naughty things in the policies you all agree to when installing the product...

 

Here is what the Kaspersky products WILL do with your computer:

• Assign a uniquely identifying ID to your computer so that they know who all data comes from.
• Collect data about you which they are free to use for ANY marketing purposes, including selling the data to other companies.
• Log your computer name, username, list of installed devices and drivers and processors and serial numbers etc, and submit them all to Kaspersky. Analyzed for marketing purposes.
• Log all website URLs you visit, and submit them all to Kaspersky. Analyzed for marketing purposes and for website security ratings.
• Intercept all website traffic (including HTTPS) and analyze the page contents, including injecting some Kaspersky JavaScripts into them to allow their various browser "protections" to do their job.
• Installing a root certificate on your computer which allows them to impersonate and intercept any secure website in the world, which is how they are able to intercept HTTPS (banking, payment etc) traffic. They literally hijack all browser connections to secure sites (such as banking), remove the real encryption, re-encrypt it with the Kaspersky root certificate, and present it to the browser. Which means that Kaspersky's program sees everything you do online. They say this is for anti-virus, and I believe them, but it's still creepy and LOWERS your security since their FAKE certificate replaces the REAL website certificates, which in turn makes your browser unable to detect any certificate problems with the REAL certificate (for example, the browser cannot detect fraudulently replaced certificates on the actual website, since the browser always only sees Kaspersky's fake certificate instead of what the site really presented)...
• Log all applications you have installed on your computer, and their disk paths, and submit them all to Kaspersky. Analyzed for marketing purposes.
• Log your active application and its window titlebar title and disk path, and submit them all to Kaspersky. Analyzed for marketing purposes.
• Log how much you use each application on your computer, and submit them all to Kaspersky. Analyzed for marketing purposes.
• Log which buttons you click on most inside applications (they mention assigning "IDs" to buttons and collecting that data), and submit them all to Kaspersky. Analyzed for marketing purposes.
• Detect suspicious activity from applications as part of its 0-day malware heuristics, and collect the application name, disk path, executable/dll files, and RAM contents (for that application I assume, but the policy didn't specify), and submit them all to Kaspersky. Analyzed for Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) anti-malware purposes. They take each incoming virus sample, do a cloud analysis and comparison against other received samples, and if they've received a lot of a sample, they analyze it via machines and possibly human intervention and then generate an anti-virus fingerprint to allow the static detection engine to detect the file from now on...

 

In short: They're spying like f_ck on you, and collecting the data so that they have a big database of popular Windows applications and usage patterns, as well as all visited websites. This kinda data is very valuable and can be sold to other companies, and THAT is how they are offering "Free" antivirus - by selling out YOUR privacy.

 

So remember this next time you install "Free" versions of commercial products.

 

They ALL do this. Every free antivirus has something like this buried in its policy. Kaspersky is not alone.

 

My verdict is still that Kaspersky Security Cloud is an incredibly good antivirus (their engine has the lowest CPU usage and fastest scan speed, and highest detection ratio and lowest false-positive ratio of all antivirus in the world). They've been pioneers since the 90s and have an incredible track recording of detecting 0-day viruses thanks to their KSN component (described above) and talented virus researchers. But just be aware of what you are giving away to get their "free" product! I will still continue to use Kaspersky Security Cloud, because to me it's worth it to have incredibly powerful antivirus for "free". Is it worth it for you? 😉

 

Source :https://old.reddit.com/r/antivirus/comments/cf9irg/kaspersky_security_cloud_free_and_paid_you_are/

 

That's always been a problem  with most Free Antivirus they take away most control of what you  can disable . Many  would not even let  you exclude  programs , exe  , dlls  if you have false positive ,  or disable https  scanning  and  cloud means  there uploading  all your computers data so you have  to trust them .  And not being  able to disable them scanning https  i dont trust it . I want  use no security product that wont give me  full  control of  it  were i can't opt out , disable  features  i dont want and exclude false positives . 

 

If your going to be the product  you may as well use Windows Defender  because  if you use Windows Microsoft already controls all your data  no use  giving your data away to everyone who makes a free version  of something  and that  why they  have 50%  of  the Anti malware market that and the fact it's baked in. 

 

I have no idea  of  what features  that you can disable or opt out of in the paid version of Kapersky  because i dont test it since 2014 . Kaspersky  already threaten to sue Microsoft  before  for not making Windows compatible with there products  and still Microsoft  is wining most people who use Free Anti malware use Windows defender.  it's used more thing anything else free or paid .   

 

That's always been one of the  Caveats using Windows every since the 1990s

 

Embrace, extend, and extinguish 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish#Examples

 

But Apple even more so but since Apple is #1 at nothing  they can't be called a monopoly but if you use there IOS  they wan't even let you use the Chrome engine . Microsoft  got sued for it before so they join chrome because they could not no longer control  what browser you use on there Windows , But  they still have there share of monopolyware DX 11 and 12 , Windows Defender , Office  and Teams  are a few i can think of.

[aum]

2 hours ago, steven36 said:

... Installing a root certificate on your computer which allows them to impersonate and intercept any secure website in the world, which is how they are able to intercept HTTPS (banking, payment etc) traffic. They literally hijack all browser connections to secure sites (such as banking), remove the real encryption, re-encrypt it with the Kaspersky root certificate, and present it to the browser. Which means that Kaspersky's program sees everything you do online...

@steven36 is banking safe or not?  Can they see your password?  Can they see what is displayed at the banking pages, e.g., account information, transactions, etc.?  Thanks.

 

[tivstip]

windows 10 has competition 

[steven36]

On 12/28/2019 at 1:18 PM, aum said:

@steven36 is banking safe or not?  Can they see your password?  Can they see what is displayed at the banking pages, e.g., account information, transactions, etc.?  Thanks.

 

The interception of TLS connections has historically been referred to as a  MITM attack  . Using HTTPS scanning features defeat  the  reason  of using HTTPS   there  more milder things you can use  like  Anti malware /Anti Tracking domains list  in your adblocker .  

https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/https-interception-harming-security/

 

On Linux  I never run  a real time  Anti Virus  because  it require root and  giving a program  root is very dangerous so  i only use  open source Clam TK   and virus  total to scan  files  i download .  Windows  was never designed for security no way  before Vista  they didn't even have UAC  and it  can be bypassed easy so you need  to use real time because all they have is UAC  and Windows Defender  unless  you installed  something else .  Most  paid Antivirus  have were  you can disable interception of TLS connections  and i do  i dont want no anti virus  seeing what i be downloading  , streaming  , buying  or anything  else  that why we have https to begin with is so  others cant intercept this traffic  .

 

So i disable it  i use to not be aware  of it tell Firefox  started  giving Antivirus Errors and my  download service i pay for said it was my Antivirus causing it  and i didnt want that on anyway because they are spying  on you .  So i always turn it off . Firefox has since fixed  by allowing Anti Virus to store there own CAs  they had no choice since like on n Windows, about 60% of Firefox users run antivirus software and most of them have HTTPS scanning features enabled by default.

[aum]

So (if using Kaspersky Free Antivurus) is banking safe or not?  Can they see your password?  Can they see what is displayed at the banking pages, e.g., account information, transactions, etc.? 

 

Your direct answer will be highly appreciated and help ease mind's anxiety.  Should one use paid antivirii? Please help @steven36! 

 

[steven36]

27 minutes ago, aum said:

So (if using Kaspersky Free Antivurus) is banking safe or not?  Can they see your password?  Can they see what is displayed at the banking pages, e.g., account information, transactions, etc.? 

 

Your direct answer will be highly appreciated and help ease mind's anxiety.  Should one use paid antivirii? Please help @steven36! 

 

In a perfect  world  that would be easy to answer , but since the world is not  perfect not everyone can afford  it that is a decision  you have let  be made by  the end user. If you want full control you most the time  have to pay for  Commercial software . The free ones that give you the most control may be from someone you don't like .  They is no such thing  as free Commercial software unless it's open source  if  you  didn't have to pay ether  with your privacy  or money on Windows  and Mac OS they would be no Linux  companies like Redhat ,Susie  and Ubuntu  . In a perfect world they would be  no need for Privacy  based Antitrust lawsuits ether . You are the master of your own density .

[aum]

How can I be master of my own destiny when I can't even get a simple request (Is KFA safe for banking or not?) answered?  Oh well, it's what it's. 

 

Could any knowledgeable member (about MITM attacks) answer the questions, please.  I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks.

 

@Karlston  @Israeli_Eagle anyone?

 

[Israeli_Eagle]

37 minutes ago, aum said:

How can I be master of my own destiny when I can't even get a simple request (Is KFA safe for banking or not?) answered?  Oh well, it's what it's. 

 

Could any knowledgeable member (about MITM attacks) answer the questions, please.  I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks.

 

@Karlston  @Israeli_Eagle anyone?

 

 

Sadly Kaspersky is for sure NOT safe at all and at Russia is officially nowadays that privacy is not allowed. So...

And just always remember the 2 old rules which might never change in life:

 

• The weakest part is always between of the chair and the PC!
• And nobody can buy brain!

 

 

[steven36]

1 hour ago, aum said:

How can I be master of my own destiny when I can't even get a simple request (Is KFA safe for banking or not?) answered?  Oh well, it's what it's. 

 

Could any knowledgeable member (about MITM attacks) answer the questions, please.  I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks.

 

 If you need  someone else advice  your not the master of you own destiny no way.  If you  was you would install  KFA  and tell me  if it's crippleware are not . People like me who don't use Kaspersky since  the 2000s  Kaspersky is not my problem  if i see a news post about it i may or not post it but i don't get paid  to install Antivirus  programs to see if they safe or not  and to give out advice  . I'm not wasting my time to answer that question .  You would be better off  asking  someone  like Ronald Eikenberg  who found  problems  wrong with it. He calls  it Kaper-SPY

 

Kaspersky Anti-Virus puts users at risk

https://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Kasper-Spy-Kaspersky-Anti-Virus-puts-users-at-risk-4496138.html

 

Here is there Privacy Policy

https://www.kaspersky.com/products-and-services-privacy-policy

 

Quote

IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO PROVIDE DATA THAT IS NECESSARY IN ORDER FOR A PRODUCT OR FEATURE TO WORK, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO USE THAT PRODUCT OR FEATURE.

 

You read it and  if there  something you don't agree  with after you test it if you can't disable the feature then you will  have to uninstall it , install a version were you can disable it or agree to it or use something else not made by them.

[Karlston]

FWIW, I run a paid for Kaspersky Internet Security. OEM keys are available for dirt-cheap prices on eBay, $AU20 ($US14) for 3 PC's for 2 years.

 

I recognise that like any software it may be spying on me, but if Eugene K. gets his jollies from looking at my boring emails and bank transactions then he really should go get a life.

 

And if it's really doing anything nasty, someone somewhere will discover it, publish it on the internet, and Kaspersky's reputation is totally ruined.  They have much more to lose than to gain.

 

KIS, blocking ad domains and tracking domains the best I can at both the router and device/application levels,  and practising good internet hygiene is I think, the best I can do to maximise my security and privacy. If you want 100% privacy and security, nothing short of unplugging everything from the world will suffice.

 

1 hour ago, Israeli_Eagle said:

• The weakest part is always between of the chair and the PC!
• And nobody can buy brain!

 

When I worked in IT, the first one was called PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)

[Israeli_Eagle]

1 minute ago, Karlston said:

When I worked in IT, the first one was called PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)

 

I still teach it nowadays to the youngsters... 

[steven36]

49 minutes ago, Karlston said:

I recognise that like any software it may be spying on me, but if Eugene K. gets his jollies from looking at my boring emails and bank transactions then he really should go get a life.

The problem is not Kapersky itself in general  the problem is  the  recent concerns of data collection by software companies. If you don't opt out  to something and you don't care they spy on you thats you're  choice and your business that means  you trust them . But if your like  me and a lot of other people who don't trust software companies who main objective  is profit at lest  if you pay for  Kasperspy  it gives  you a choice to turn off Kaspersky Data Collection  and  HTTPS Interception but  free Cloud versions  of software  i doubt they would be a way to turn it off  they not going make nothing for free  unless they making a profit off it that not how the internet work .

 

You got  free Antivirus software who always made money from collecting data,  just like  you have companies like Google who always collected data  they also have paid services even Avast free helped put Google Chrome on the map by offering  it when you installed Avast back before  people used  Google Chrome  and Windows Defender much . Then you have companies who had problems like Microsoft  did with Windows selling  too consumers with Windows 8 / 8.1  so they done like Google  and made Windows 10 full of ads  and data harvesting  and so far they always been a back door  to get Windows 10 for free. Then you have Kapersky  who never offered free products they lost lots of goverment contracts  and users because of the NSA indecent so  they make a free version that collects data.

 

49 minutes ago, Karlston said:

 

When I worked in IT, the first one was called PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)

 

Back then people were not concern about  there privacy  like they are now . They was no Google Software , Facebook  that drove all these other software companies to spy on us to make a profit still . It's almost 2020  now Privacy laws exist in the EU and the USA  is starting to get there own . Kapersky use to be used in USA Goverment but not anymore. Times  change and people are more aware now than they use to be . 2012-2016 people distrusted the Goverment but software companies got  around it  but every since 2017 people not only distrust the Goverment they distrust  software companies even more because not only do they  give the Goverment data they sell it  for profit  too .

 

[Sylence]

On 12/30/2019 at 10:50 PM, Karlston said:

FWIW, I run a paid for Kaspersky Internet Security. OEM keys are available for dirt-cheap prices on eBay, $AU20 ($US14) for 3 PC's for 2 years.

 

I recognise that like any software it may be spying on me, but if Eugene K. gets his jollies from looking at my boring emails and bank transactions then he really should go get a life.

 

And if it's really doing anything nasty, someone somewhere will discover it, publish it on the internet, and Kaspersky's reputation is totally ruined.  They have much more to lose than to gain.

 

KIS, blocking ad domains and tracking domains the best I can at both the router and device/application levels,  and practising good internet hygiene is I think, the best I can do to maximise my security and privacy. If you want 100% privacy and security, nothing short of unplugging everything from the world will suffice.

 

 

When I worked in IT, the first one was called PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)

 

 

Words to live by.

and you're totally right, if Kaspersky was really spying, it would mean the end of their company. there lots of experts in the world that are hunting for anything like that to reveal it and make big stories about it.