Brendan Smith

Brendan Smith has spent over 15 years knee-deep in cybersecurity, chasing down malware from the gritty reverse-engineering of old-school trojans all the way to wrangling full-blown incident responses for small-to-medium businesses that couldn’t afford a full-blown breach. Over at Gridinsoft, he’s the guy piecing together those double-checked guides on nasty stuff like AsyncRAT, a remote access tool used in malware campaigns—helping readers make sense of the threat and work through cleanup without the extra headache.
Cybersecurity Analyst
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783 Articles

ChatGPT Lockdown Mode Bypass Through HTML Previews Was Fixed

Check Point showed how an HTML preview escaped ChatGPT Lockdown Mode. OpenAI…

Brendan Smith

NIKKE Launcher Cleanup Can Erase Compromise Evidence

NIKKE players should save launcher logs before cleanup. Independent research separates evidence…

Brendan Smith

beacon.ser and Beacon Trojans: Check, Remove, and Recover

Found beacon.ser or a Beacon Trojan alert? Check the file and warning,…

Brendan Smith

PDM:Trojan.Win32.Generic: Kaspersky Alert and Removal

Understand Kaspersky’s PDM:Trojan.Win32.Generic alert, choose the right disinfection option, investigate false positives,…

Brendan Smith

ARTEX AI Agents Steal App-Signing Certificates

Check Point traced ARTEX agents stealing 300+ app-signing certificates. Only three passed…

Brendan Smith

Haiou Turns a Codex Greeting Into a Gateway Ad

Check Point traced persistent gateway ads to Haiou’s global agent instructions. A…

Brendan Smith

Sogou Icon Request Hijacked to Deliver DarkVigil

ESET traced DarkVigil delivery to Sogou Input Method’s icon configuration. Windows users…

Brendan Smith

How to Fix “Folder in Use” Error in Windows 11/10

Can't delete, move, or rename a folder? Find which program is using…

Brendan Smith

KB5127936 Failed to Install? Fix Windows 11 26H2 & 25H2

Fix KB5127936 installation errors on Windows 11 26H2 and 25H2. Choose the…

Brendan Smith

Trojan:Win32/Posilod.EB!cl: Is the DLL a False Positive?

A Posilod alert in agent-browser involved a Chrome for Testing DLL. Check…

Brendan Smith

Virus:Win32/virut: What to Scan After a Defender Alert

Virus:Win32/virut can infect other programs. Check the whole PC, investigate fresh detections,…

Brendan Smith

Cyberpunk 2077 setup.exe: Virus or False Positive?

Cyberpunk 2077 setup.exe flagged as Yomal? Check the exact file, keep uncertain…

Brendan Smith

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