AVG *Swizzlor* virus threat

[bunny]

*Rather long, but necessary for everyone who has AVG to read this*


A few players have been worried and have mass (IM) messaged news having to do with the updates on PokerStars leading to a virus.

After reading it, myself....I thought it was rather silly and most probably a hoax of some kind, so I basically ignored it. Until last night, when my AVG tried to block the update....I immediately emailed Pokerstars and this is the response email they sent me.

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Hello Sophie,

Thank you for your email.

Thank you for your email regarding the AVG warning about the swizzlor
virus threat.

Please note that this is a false alarm introduced by a recent update to
the AVG virus definition file. There is no virus in the PokerStars update,
which we have confirmed through the use of alternate scanners from McAfee
and Symantec.

It is perfectly safe to click on the "Ignore" option and accept the update
from PokerStars. However, should you get an update error, please disable
your AVG software in order to launch your PokerStars program.

Should you be unable to use the "Ignore" option to complete the PokerStars
update, you may launch PokerStars temporarily by skipping the update
process. To do so:

1) Right click on your desktop
2) Choose "New -> Shortcut"
3) Browse your computer to locate "PokerStars.EXE".

It will be accompanied by the familiar red, black and orange icon, and may
not have ".EXE" at the end of it depending on how your computer is set up.
It is likely be in one of these directories (folders):

C:\Program Files\PokerStars\
C:\Program Files\PokerStars.NET\

4) Give the shortcut a name, and click "OK".

This new shortcut will skip the update process and should allow you to log
on without complaint from AVG. If this fails, you will probably need to
disable AVG temporarily in order to run PokerStars.

To disable AVG in order to run PokerStars, you need to turn off
the "Resident Shield" portion of the program. To do this, open the AVG
control center, and in the section where it says "Security Status", right
click on "Resident Shield" and choose "Properties". Uncheck the checkbox
for "Turn on AVG Resident Shield protection" and click OK. You can now
launch PokerStars (and should re-launch Resident Shield as soon as you do
so, for maximum virus protection).

Please note that either option (bypassing the update, or temporarily
disabling the virus scanner) should only be used temporarily, until AVG
corrects the virus definition file. PokerStars updates are required, and
virus protection is too vital to be disabled for any length of time.

At the moment we are trying to contact the AVG team at Grisoft as quickly
as possible in order to ask them to resolve this issue. We apologize for
the inconvenience this might cause.

Please note that this is not an unusual happening. All virus makers
occasionally put out virus definitions that cause false hits, sometimes
rather in high profile, such as this recent high profile occurrence
involving Adobe:



You can see just how common this is by Googling "AVG false alarm":



Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Regards,

Nathan J
PokerStars Support Team

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Clicking on ignore through my AVG did not work for me, as it has with other people using it. I had to shut down AVG in order to update PokerStars. Once updated, I resumed AVG activity and simply ignore the threat for now, till PS fixes the problem.

[Talking Poker]

Good info - thanks. It's especially good to know one can run Stars WITHOUT accepting a software update. I didn't know this was possible.