I turned my home computer on this morning only to find it had been infected by a terrible Trojan Virus: ZeusS.Zbot.aoaq. Or at least that is what my trusted, award-winning , was telling me. Even for a jaded, security-conscious user like myself seeing the words "steals banking passwords" in a warning message and will get my full attention. I updated my virus definitions and launched a deep scan. It was only then that I really started to look at the message.

This "Global Alert" certainly looks official, but no where does it say my system is actually infected. And why would the firewall be monitoring Trojans? What's more the call to action: buy, download, and install Checkpoint's antivirus software seems just a tad too self-serving.

Sure enough, after Googling the virus name I find out it is just a scareware sales tactic for Checkpoint's antivirus product. The virus is real, but my system isn't infected. From what I can tell, thousands of users of ZoneAlarm Free Firewall are also getting these false alarms.

ZoneAlarm Free Firewall is a great product, in fact it is PCMag's current Editors' Choice for free firewalls. Checkpoint deserves mucho credit for making it available to consumers for free. And it is certainly entitled to make money via advertising, cross-promotions, or just about anything else. But spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt is out of line. Maybe it works as a sales tactic, but crying wolf like this is terribly damaging.

Next time I get an alert from ZoneAlarm, will I take it seriously? Would you?

Update 2:53pm EDT

Checkpoint Software provided PCMag.com a statement regarding the pop ups. Here it is, in its entirety:

The popup message in ZoneAlarm Free Firewall was intended as an alert to a virus our technology discovered. We wanted to proactively let our users know that ZoneAlarm Free Firewall and other AV products do not fully protect from this virus. It was never our intent to lead customers to believe they have a virus on their computer. This was purely an informative message about a legitimate and serious virus that also included information about the differences in protection of various products, and how to get protection against it. ZoneAlarm is committed to providing our customers with the best protection and considers it our job to proactively alert users whenever a potential risk is looming rather than wait for the damage to be done.

