March 11, 2009

SYMANTEC: "There is no conspiracy theory. We were under attack by a robot."

After being unable to silence their customers on their forums inquiring about Symantec's mysterious PIFTS.exe file Monday night, Symantec has moved on to their Plan B: lie and obfuscate. Releasing a statement Tuesday on their forums, Symantec explained that their customers were incorrect in thinking there was a mass effort to delete all their posts inquiring about PIFTS.exe, because it was in fact a mass effort by Symantec to delete posts by spammers with "unclear" intentions inquiring about PIFTS.exe.

"There is no conspiracy theory. There's nothing we are hiding at all," says Jeff Kyle, group product manager for Symantec consumer products. "Within the first hour there were like 600 posts to that thread. Obviously it was a bot creating this."

Currently, representatives of the company are repeating that the first post referencing PIFTS.exe was made by a spambot, despite being unable to explain how and why a spambot can be the first to be aware of and mention this obscure file on the forums at the exact same time Symantec's staff realized their mistake and were pulling the file from distribution. Witnesses who saw the initial deleted post are having the hardest time accepting Symantec staff's explanation.
(Photo of the culprit courtesy Symantec's Public Relations Dept.)

5 comments:

  1. This is nothing more than handwaving and them ignorantly thinking that this will be swept under the rug. "Nothing to see here people". Too late, the cat has left the bag.

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  2. See, this is why I don't use an antivirus...

    ...no, wait. That's because I use Linux and don't need one >:D

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  3. ATTENTION EVERYBODY: Everything is irrelevant, there's a guy that uses Linux!

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  4. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lashed out like that Anonymous. My nerves are thin. I'm being blacklisted and I think the pressure is getting to me. Digg buried my story and cafepress won't sell my merchandise. I feel I'm like I'm the target of a cover up much larger than I initially imagined. Don't be mistaken though, I'm not afraid of what may happen to me. My only worry is that if I "disappear," there will be no one to uncover the ensuing cover up.

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  5. Sir (or Madam),

    I just want to thank you for your courage and your fierce refusal to be cowed by big brother's attempts to silence you.

    Your blog has really been an eye-opener for me! Keep shedding light in dark places!

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