Now THIS is an interesting thread. This may all be something benign or something serious, but it seems pretty clear that Norton's trying to hide something by deleting threads on their community forums and giving no reasons as to why.

My question is if Norton is doing something shady, why wtould they allow their AV program to notify you that pifts.exe is trying to access the internet? Really, if they were up to no good, I'm sure there are "slealthier" ways to accomplish whatever it is that they're trying to do.

I guess the real question is why Norton is keeping quiet about all this? Ignoring consumer questions is just making them look bad.. Not a very good idea.

I went ahead and created a username for the Norton forums and asked about pifts.exe. I expected to see some sort of forum announcement about it on there but there was nothing so it seems as if Norton is still ignoring it. I took a screenshot of my thread; it appears someone else had posted a thread about pifts.exe right before I did too. I'm gonna wait and see if the threads get deleted or what happens.

UPDATE:
Well, I can confirm that these pieces of # are deleting threads related to pifts.exe. I posted my thread about it on their forums at 247am central US time. As of 304am central US time my thread - and the other one that got posted a couple minutes before mine - is gone.

This is very troubling, not necessarily because something "sinister" is going on here, but simply because Norton is obviously trying to sweep "something" under the rug. And as long as they keep quiet and don't respond to questions, consumers' imaginations are going to run rampant with regards to what's going on.

Could it possibly be that an AV company has finally been caught red handed trying to infection computers or steal some type of information?

UDATE to UPDATE:
Just noticed that they're not allowing me to create new threads anymore too. I guess deleting my thread was pretty simple. All I did was ask what pifts.exe was... Pretty lame and kinda scary.

Cool; this one's still alive. Had to remake an account to post this one; I'll make it quick. Deny it any access whatsoever; it's logging some kind of info and sending it to Google, for all we know. Whatever you do, DO NOT ALLOW IT TO RUN. Oh, and don't bother calling them. They're giving the run around. Hey Moderator, when you go to nuke this one, think for a minute: Aren't you curious what your overlords are hiding from you?

I don't believe that my thread on the Norton forums received any replies; at least I couldn't check before Norton decided to delete it and remove my posting priveledges, but the above was posted in yet another pifts.exe related thread that was just created.

I don't know how true what the poster is saying about pifts.exe. I don't understand why Norton would want to send anything to google since (I believe) Norton is owned my Symantec who is owned by Yahoo. Very interesting nonetheless.


[edit on 10-3-2009 by zephyrs]

[edit on 10-3-2009 by zephyrs]

[edit on 10-3-2009 by zephyrs]

[edit on 10-3-2009 by zephyrs]

This is plain wild. Now all the posts on the zone alarm threads are being deleted referring to pifts.exe , aside from the norton forums deleting each thread or post within a minutes time now zone alarm's site too? As well google shows misleading results in the terms of pages of results only 2 are actually there, most of the pages lead to how do i say bad websites that install viruses immediately. Do not attempt to go there if your not on a safe browser with protection the pages are akin to the winantivirus 2005 smitfraud advertisements. just plain evil to non computer savvy people. the pages actually look like your my computer window in a windows xp machine.

[edit on 10-3-2009 by Localjoe3]

Originally posted by sadisticwoman

I know 4chan isn't everyone's idea of a good news source, but this is being talked about all over the internet...

4chan is beyond "not a good news source", 4chan is a place for liars, pranksters and general trouble. Do you have any proof this is a real issue beyond the posting of anons across the internet starting with 4chan?

This is probably some sort of large scale prank and that is why board admins are removing these threads.

Just some speculation here, could it be a program written by a Nigerian to gain access to your info so they can siphon your credit cards and bank accounts???

From what I understand, and correct me if I am wrong, but it is scanning your files, your searches, and sending that info out someplace else?

What are the chances that this is more about sending your info to a Government that is hell bent on regulating the internet?

I asked about this topic on the Norton boards , the post was up for about 2 mins and then deleted and I was banned.....they wont even let me view their forums now let alone post!

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Mod Edit: Added ex tags.

[edit on 10-3-2009 by Gemwolf]

Norton is going to get caught with its pants down....
I cannot wait to see how this pans out.

i usually dont post. but this is very interesting.. mod please keep this in the front burner until there s an answer... talk about a conspiracy!

Whats their problem? How can they sue your site just for talking about some exe file?

What do your attourneys say about it?


Cheers!!!!