Avast and Bitdefender False-Positives

Hi everyone,

Avast was falsely detecting sbautoupdate.exe, a legitimate and clean component of SpywareBlaster, as a virus. This false-positive has since been resolved in Avast's database update "080626-1" (or later).

Please open Avast, ensure the database is updated, and then reinstall SpywareBlaster (you can do so "over-the-top" - i.e. to the same directory in which you originally installed SpywareBlaster).


We're also hearing reports that Bitdefender is falsely detecting "spywareblaster.exe", the main SpywareBlaster executable, as a virus in their most recent database update. This is a false-positive detection - the file is legitimate and clean.

If you have Bitdefender, please contact Bitdefender support and report the false positive - the more people that report it, the quicker it should be resolved (hopefully).


As a side note, it's very important to keep in mind a few things: anti-virus programs have never been perfect. They have falsely detected clean programs in the past, and will likely continue to have occasional false-positives. And anti-virus programs sometimes fail to detect malicious programs as well.

Regardless of the anti-virus program you use, you should not rely on it to always be correct: if it detects something you are pretty sure is clean (or that comes from a reputable source), it's always worth double-checking. And if it doesn't flag something as malicious that seems far too suspicious, it's also worth searching online to see if your hunch is correct. The best and final defense against malicious programs is often common sense.

Best regards and thanks,

-Javacool