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Brendan Smith

Cybersecurity analyst covering malware families, suspicious files, and detection alerts. Brendan focuses on clear explanations of what a warning means, when it may be a false positive, and which cleanup steps are appropriate.

9,724 articles Malware detection Suspicious files False-positive checks

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Recent articles by Brendan Smith

Ransomware · January 16, 2020

Horsedeal Virus Removal + Decrypt .horsedeal Files

Horsedeal is a BigBossHorse family of ransomware-type infections. This ransomware encrypts your private files (video, photos, documents). The infected files can be tracked by...

News · January 16, 2020

Paradise Ransomware decryption tool

Bitdefender Lab announced a decryption tool for Paradise Ransomware. About Paradise Ransomware Paradise Ransomware, initially discovered in 2017. It has been marketed as a...

Adware · January 13, 2020

MindSpark Removal. How to remove Adware.MindSpark?

PUP.Optional.MindSpark is a detection name indicating the adware program that installs in-browser content without users' consent or permission. What is MindSpark? MindSpark is adware...