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Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

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101–110 of 206 posts

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#101

Very important that you develop complete confidence that there isn't anything wrong with your product. It's not uncommon, in fact it's very common, for compromise kits for websites to take measures to avoid detection. A common one is only serving the malicious content when a specific referrer is present (I've seen this be Yahoo Search in the case of compromised Drupal installations multiple times, not really sure why…

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Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#102

When this happened to my software product I fixed it by purchasing a Comodo EV code signing certificate. It cost me $502, it was FedExed to me in a USB, and I signed my program. Tens of thousands of installs later, I have never had an issue with smart screen. Note that there are two types of code signing certs, you want the EV Code Signing Certificate. It will instantly give your program reputation that ends the smar…

> It cost me $502, it was FedExed to me in a USB, and I signed my program.

I’m surprised that it apparently had to be delivered physically. Did Comodo generate the private key for you?

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently in a 3 day Facebook ban because I posted an NIH (National Institute of Health, peak legitimacy right here) link which was meant to help someone understand something. Unfortunately, the medical procedure it covered thumbnailed down (in the generated preview) to a fairly graphic photo of a woman's private parts being operated on... and that resulted in an uncontestable instaban. No humans can be reached…

Facebook + Google hold similar levels of power as governments over our lives, and so should adopt similar structures. An independent judiciary, review bodies, ombudsmen, aldermen, etc.

No they shouldn't, they should be broken up so they don't have that power.

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#104
post #91
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should they then not just reply with "You're on the list because of the malware payload at "?

No, because they would cause the following scenario: Malicious attacker looks for exactly what Microsoft detected, and fixes each specific detection while keep operating the undetected ones. The end result would be operational malicious site, without being detected.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why well-regarded justice systems don't disclose anything about why they arrested someone and are jailing them indefinitely. It'd give criminals too much of an edge otherwise, and would surely be unworkable and lead to violent anarchy in short order.

Surely you don’t consider the US to have a well regarded justice system do you?

This is irrelevant to my post. Would removing all transparency from it help, or make it worse? Are there better-regarded ones that don't reveal anything whatsoever to the accused and convicted, because that'd make it so hard to stop criminals that everything would fall apart?

[EDIT] My point is simply that somehow we manage in basically every other space to let those accused of wrongdoing know what we think they did that looked like wrongdoing, but somehow when it's an Internet giant calling the shots that's just impossible and waaaaah too hard and the sky would fall if they ever treated anyone with any amount of humanity and respect. I think it's grade-A bullshit and they've just figured out they can get away with being assholes at scale and no-one will make them stop.

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely you don’t consider the US to have a well regarded justice system do you?

This is irrelevant to my post. Would removing all transparency from it help, or make it worse? Are there better-regarded ones that don't reveal anything whatsoever to the accused and convicted, because that'd make it so hard to stop criminals that everything would fall apart? [EDIT] My point is simply that somehow we manage in basically every other space to let those accused of wrongdoing know what we think they did…

There is no indication that the original poster did any type of security review to make sure that the block was justified. Let’s start there.

It’s not just the internet. No company disclosed their fraud detection techniques.

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#107
post #102

When this happened to my software product I fixed it by purchasing a Comodo EV code signing certificate. It cost me $502, it was FedExed to me in a USB, and I signed my program. Tens of thousands of installs later, I have never had an issue with smart screen. Note that there are two types of code signing certs, you want the EV Code Signing Certificate. It will instantly give your program reputation that ends the smar…

> It cost me $502, it was FedExed to me in a USB, and I signed my program. I’m surprised that it apparently had to be delivered physically. Did Comodo generate the private key for you?

IIRC you are able to get the cert signed to an existing HSM USB (depends on the provider tho).

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#108
post #102

When this happened to my software product I fixed it by purchasing a Comodo EV code signing certificate. It cost me $502, it was FedExed to me in a USB, and I signed my program. Tens of thousands of installs later, I have never had an issue with smart screen. Note that there are two types of code signing certs, you want the EV Code Signing Certificate. It will instantly give your program reputation that ends the smar…

> It cost me $502, it was FedExed to me in a USB, and I signed my program. I’m surprised that it apparently had to be delivered physically. Did Comodo generate the private key for you?

The point is the private key is on the USB gadget and stays there. It's not a dumb USB drive.

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#109
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need one but having one maximizes campaign life.

How on earth does it do that? If I put malware at xyz.com/mybadpage and MS starts flagging xyz.com, how on earth do I "maximize campaign life" by being told xyz.com/mybadpage has malware?

Imagine that you have put malware in xyz.com/mybadpage1, xyz.com/mybadpage2, and xyz.com/mybadpage3 pages. MS flags you, and you query MS. They tell you they see malware on the first two urls. Now you gained information about their blindspots.

You can capitalise on this multiple ways. You can remove the first two and hope they remove the flag. You can design your next attack better so it is more like mybadpage3. Etc

Re: Ask HN: Microsoft SmartScreen is destroying our business

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook + Google hold similar levels of power as governments over our lives, and so should adopt similar structures. An independent judiciary, review bodies, ombudsmen, aldermen, etc.

We already hold similar levels of power. We can just not use Facebook and Google. One needs neither of these services to live a normal life.

> We already hold similar levels of power. We can just not use Facebook and Google.

Common argument. Not a great one, because some things are only available through Facebook, and not being there can complicate your in-person life significantly. But, since I'm not on Facebook, I have to admit that it's good enough for me.

> One needs neither of these services to live a normal life.

A step too far. Normal people have Facebook and use Google. One needs both of these services to live a normal life.

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