PanoSalado virus infected

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Those of you who have not already heard:

The panosalado.com website is virus infected, and has been so for the past 5 days (at least).

The site has been replaced with a "hair cut" notice (probably by the admins), but it is still available and infectious.

If you happen to have a panorama on YOUR site, made with PanoSalado/SpinControl, you are absolutely adviced to REMOVE it from public view, since the context menu contains a link to the virus infected site. You would not want to help your visitors to get infected.

Almost 10 days ago panosalado was reported to have (the same) virus infection. I wrote a mail informing Patrick of it. His only response was to drop a notice in the NGpanotools group, that all looked ok to him... and that was the end of it. The site was still infectious when he stated all to look ok. A couple of days went by, and then the site was clean. Still no admittance from Patrick or Zephyr of there having been a problem.

This time I didn't bother writing an email their way... why should I, if they can't even drop a "thanks" in return for being informed of problems that really do not concern me in any way or form? And they didn't even offer an apology to those who might have been infected by their site... nor have they offered any apology this time. Or a single word addressing the situation.

So... MY recommendation is for people to remove any and all panos made with their software, at least until it has been made sure that they will handle future events in a better, more professional and more HUMAN way.

From the looks of it, they really don't give a damn about infecting potential visitors, be that to their own site or the much more spread problem, visitors who click links to their site through the on-screen links in the free version or in the context menu.

The site has been infected for long enough for them to come out and say something about it... offer an apology ... ANYTHING.... but they have chosen not do do that.

I take that as a sign of them caring more about pretending that nothing is wrong, than really caring about the well being of their visitors.

That much is clear to me after the past 10 days.

[Astroman]

Hm. Who cares abt Panosaldo ???
For me the new Version was a bad presentation.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

The latest software you get from there, is a virus. Is that better or worse than their latest official version?

[Astroman]

He Tuddi, I have tested the new version when its came out 3 to 4 weeks ago. I didn?t recieve a virus alert from my Zonealarm AntiVirus at this time.
But the player was not working for me, the whole time the panorama was whirling around with constant reload of tiled images. That?s what I really hate.
It this point I didn?t know if this was a problem of the Flashplayer or what else.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Now going on day 6, and panosalado is still offering virus infections to badly protected visitors. Not only that, but also the sister site flashpanos.com is infected.

http://flashificator.com/1/Diverse/T...usInfected.jpg

It may have been infected for some time, since I have not visited it until just now. It would not surprise me at this point, if it has been infected for months... from the looks of it, spreading virus is their main game. If it wasn't, they would have taken care of the problem as soon as it was reported, rather than casually brush off the problem by stating that all looked ok... and then say no more.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Panosalado.com is now safe to visit, and there you will also find out that they seemingly have a nasty competitor who is hacking their sites:

Greetings.

PanoSalado's competitors keep hacking panosalado.com!

We've taken the site offline for a bit, until we can get it back in shape for you.

Never fear though -- PanoSalado is still available and is still the only open source Flash 10 native 360° panorama viewer out there worth its salt. smile

Download PanoSalado from: os.ivrpa.org/panosalado/

Until forums are up and running again, feel free to discuss PanoSalado at the PanoTools NG list or at the IVRPA repository. You can also contact the PanoSalado team via the IVRPA repository.

Thanks for your understanding, and cheers!

ps: PanoSalado has been ported to Objective-C, and will be part of an iPhone/iPad app soon -- no browser hacks!

flashpanos.com is still infected though, but at least my consistent and admittedly not very polite nudging the problem under their nose, did finally result in positive action on their behalf. Way too late... but at least late is better than never.

[nidrig]

PanoSalado's competitors keep hacking panosalado.com!

I wonder who these competitors are..and who has the time to hack their sites. And what for?

Some human beings leave me clueless.



Anyway, thanks Trausti for pointing it out!

[terrycm]

I too am curious who they were referring to with that statement. It reads awfully accusatory to me. Not to mention placing blame on "competitors" without proper evidence is reckless to say the least. I would be curious to know who these competitors are and what evidence they have to make such a claim.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Just send Patrick an email and ask him. I wouldn't hold my breath on receiving any answer from him though.

For him to state such a thing on his site, is libelous at best. He should take the full step and name the culprits, so that justice can be done.

Also, something that IS really revealing: They were told of the problem a long time ago. They chose to do NOTHING. That is not only reckless, but directly CRIMINAL. They allowed the site to be up and running, KNOWING it was infectious.

If they had NOT known, they would have been just as much a victim as anyone visiting their site.... even more so. But once they KNEW and chose to do NOTHING... they were no longer victims at all.

My best bet is that they would also like to blame that on their "competition"... that they were not able to do anything for days (it takes 2 minutes or less to disable the site if need be).

I think it's more likely that they have simply been infected through something they have uploaded to the site ... since flashpanos.com is also infected (and still is)... and rather than admit ANY of their own shortcomings, they resort to fingerpointing at anyone else but themselves.

If they had reacted as ANY responsible website owner does in a similar situation, they would have taken the site offline immediately and have the problem fixed.

That was what I expected them to do when I wrote Patrick a private mail informing him of the problem. He chose to ignore that, and let the site stay infectious and online for people to get infected.

That is criminal.

From now on, I will not be able to direct anyone EVER to their site, and those who do not heed my warning, should be well protected before visiting any of their sites. They do not care for the well being of their visitors, and that is now an established fact.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone visited flashpanos.com today and would file a lawsuit against them based on recklessly endangering the safety of their visitors. Once they have been made aware of malicious content on their site(s), they have an obligation to react. At least a moral one, but also a legal one. ... but probably their competition tied them up and gagged them ... so they could not do anything for the past 2 weeks... or a month... or whatever time it was they were infected.

[Darrell_360fusion]

PanoSalado's competitors keep hacking panosalado.com! ;-)

That's the quote on the panosalado.com

The ;-) indicates the statement is a joke all be it not an appropriate one.