Hey, I just installed heartbeat on my laptop, and I have a word of caution to everyone. I'm very concerned because It seems to use/is built on an adware system.
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If you take a look, it found 1237 instances of "PUP.Optional.CrossRider" The description of this Potentially unwanted program is "
PUP.Optional.CrossRider is an adware program, that displays pop-up ads and advertisements on web pages that you visit. These advertisements will be shown as boxes containing various coupons that are available, as underlined keywords, pop-up ads or advertising banners. The browser extension includes various features that will modify the default or custom settings of the browser including the home page, search settings and in some cases will modify Internet Explorer’s load time threshold, place a lock file within Firefox to prevent competing software from changing its settings as well as disable the browser’s Content Security Policy in order to allow for cross site scripting of the plugin.
These ads are aimed to promote the installation of additional questionable content including web browser toolbars, optimization utilities and other products, all so the PUP.Optional.CrossRider publisher can generate pay-per-click revenue.
Crossrider, an emerging programming framework designed to simplify the process of writing plugins that will run on Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox. The plugin spreads by posting a link to a video on a users Facebook wall, and friends who follow the link are told they need to accept the installation of the plugin in order to view the video. Users who install it will have their accounts modified to periodically post links that help pimp the program...
When infected with PUP.Optional.CrossRider the common symptoms include:
- Advertising banners are injected with the web pages that you are visiting.
- Random web page text is turned into hyperlinks.
- Browser popups appear which recommend fake updates or other software.
- Other unwanted adware programs might get installed without the user’s knowledge
It’s reported that PUP.Optional.Crossrider is utilized by cyber criminals as an advertisement platform, which will bombard unwary users with a sea of pop-up ads and sponsored links on Youtube or other social websites they’re navigating to. By corrupting the currently-used browser, this virus may give rise to the replacement of the default homepage and search engine, redirecting victims to some unfamiliar domains where additional cyber malware can be easily implanted. Apart from these abnormal symptoms, the bus is also responsible for stupid PC performance, system frozen or crash, which will impede internet users from undertaking basic normal tasks
"
So, why is Heartbeat using this? Freedom made this browser extension... Why does it have adware bundled with it? Here is proof that it is actually the Heart Beat Extension, and not something else. Compare the file path on the virus scan with this picture.
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Now if you do a search for HeartBeat in this folder, you can see what is found.
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For further proof, the icons and all files for heartbeat are contained in this extensions folders.
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So.... it's pretty scary that they did something like this.... They put adware and other code in along with heartbeat... Who knows what they are doing with it or why they want to do this in the first place! You say it's for cross-browser compatibility, but why not just use something else that isn't a virus. Although you may just use it for cross-browser compatibility, it's still adware and shouldn't be in HeartBeat at all.
So George, What's this all about!? I'm very concerned about this.
