The ARRL's HFTA software, included on a CD packaged with the Antenna Handbook, is an important and very useful tool that I've used extensively over the past few years, even with my predisposition towards vertical antennas, which HFTA can't handle.
But yesterday, when installing it again from a 22nd Edition CD on my new PC, Windows Defender found a serious virus on the CD that means I can no longer run HFTA (or any of the CD, actually). The virus was never identified during previous installations under Windows 7, even when I had good quality payware virus protection.
The virus in question is a Trojan: Win32/Vigorf.A, which apparently allows hackers to control your machine remotely and, of course, steal your data.
Whilst Windows Defender can effectively remove this virus, you should be aware of this serious risk and at least avoid installing software from older versions of the Antenna Handbook discs. I don't know if the ARRL are aware of this problem, or whether the latest editions are virus-free.
2 comments:
Sometimes I really doubt if those are really a virus? But you never know. I can't even download JT-Alert and updated SH contest analyzer (although I've purchased it). They simply contain a virus that I can't bypass, W10 refuses to download both software packages. 73, Bas
You're right that it may be a false positive. But unfortunately, I have no way to easily figure out if this is the case, and can't take the huge potential risk if I exempt it. The way I see it, it's the ARRL's job to make sure that their software passes virus checks, regardless of what causes any rejection.
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