[OFFICIAL] News about Symantec article about Malware, that mentions Hearthbuddy

[bossland]

Greetings all,

recently a Symantec employee wrote an article in their official blog.

They used a picture of our website Heartbuddy and in a paragraph below they mentioned that bots might include malware.

This gives the very wrong impression, that Hearthbuddy is a ***** that has malware in it. And not that Hearthbuddy is a product created and sold by a German company, that never had malware in it and solely automates the gameplay.

However, other news sites, picked up the article, and made their own fairy tales out of it, you can read here:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/hearthstone-hacks-may-compromise-your-pc-according/1100-6434660/
http://www.csoonline.com/article/30...one-*****s-and-tools-spiked-with-malware.html


Again, we have never put anything else in Hearthbuddy, then Hearthbuddy itself. Hearthbuddy never contained malware. We informed Symantec about their wrong, and demaned a counter statement at their official blog.

Once it is there, we will share it here.

 

[L4mpje2]

I believe it is time for the next lawsuit...

In all seriousness though, I do believe there's some mixed interests concerning that article.
I'm in fact surprised about how blatant and shameless both news sites accuse Hearthbuddy of being malignant to a user's Pc.

In both articles, you get a little advertisement for Hearthstone, a vague quoting of Symantec's report, an intro about 'Did you know that gold and dust hacks are fake!?' and a link between Hearthbuddy and how it supposedly compromises one's system.
Although in the ACTUAL REPORT (may I link?) from symantec, the name 'Hearthbuddy' is never even mentioned. Symantec doesn't go beyond the vague mention that 'hacks and bots may contain viruses...'

Both news sites have completely have completely made up any mention about Hearthbuddy. It's rather quite disgusting - accusing HB yet misquoting their source, thus providing pure air.

The fault lies in the fact that Symantec used a picture from Hearthbuddy. I believe some employee just googled 'Hearthstone bot' and picked a good-looking picture...
Both news sites didn't go beyond copy pasting part of the report and just making up the rest of their article on the go.
Qualitatively speaking, both websites are trash concerning their content. There's literally zero fucks given about proper journalism and a quality check.The fact that they didn't even read their source is completely absurd.
This is a prime example of what isn't qualitative journalism, and the dangers concerning that fact.

 

[whatawhiz]

LOL Page not found now

 

[bossland]

Symantec corrected it and sent the correction to the newssites.

Dear Mr Letschew

Thank you for contacting us today regarding our blog on the Hearthstone game. Our blog post was written to highlight the potential malware dangers around the use of third party software bots that are available to Hearthstone game players to assist in their game playing. The Hearthbuddy image was used in the blog only as an example of an available software bot and indeed Hearthbuddy was not called out as being malicious or distributing malware anywhere in the blog. However we note your concerns, and as a matter of goodwill we have removed the image from our blog page, and we are also publishing the following footnote to the updated blog post:


“A previous edition of this blog featured an image of the Hearthbuddy bot software purchase and download page. This was just shown to provide a general example of an available bot. Symantec did not suggest (nor intend to suggest) that Hearthbuddy itself contains malware. Symantec apologises for any confusion.”


Kind regards

Director, Legal
Symantec Security (UK) Ltd
www.symantec.com

 

[TheFisher]

as a matter of goodwill we have removed the image from our blog page

That phrase is quite pathetic. They act as if they didn't do anything wrong. They basically slandered another company, intentionally or by stupidity. It doesn't really matter. And now they pretend to do you a favour of "goodwill". Symantec

 

[Lazy cat]

Symantec corrected it and sent the correction to the newssites.
“A previous edition of this blog featured an image of the Hearthbuddy bot software purchase and download page. This was just shown to provide a general example of an available bot. Symantec did not suggest (nor intend to suggest) that Hearthbuddy itself contains malware. Symantec apologises for any confusion.”

Bossland, great job!
As a result, they have made good Hearthbuddy advertising