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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686 Articles

Every Download Says Virus Detected in Chrome and Edge: Safe Fix

Chrome and Edge flag every download while Firefox works? Separate a real…

Brendan Smith

Is Tiny11 Safe? Builder vs Prebuilt ISO and Update Risks

Tiny11 is not one uniform download. Compare regular and Core builds, builder…

Brendan Smith

IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe Crash or High CPU: Intel RST Fix

IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe is normally an Intel RST service. Verify it, fix crashes or…

Brendan Smith

Is Windhawk Safe? Mods, Injection, and Antivirus Alerts

Verify the official Windhawk installer, judge individual mods, understand code-injection alerts, and…

Brendan Smith

PhoneExperienceHost.exe High CPU: Fix Phone Link Safely

Measure the Phone Link symptom, repair or reset it safely, and tell…

Brendan Smith

DasHost.exe High CPU: Fix Device Association Host Safely

Find the device behind dasHost.exe high CPU, repair Device Association Host safely,…

Brendan Smith

Ctfmon.exe High CPU: Fix CTF Loader Safely

Identify the CTF Loader trigger, repair Windows text input safely, and tell…

Brendan Smith

Behavior:Win32/WinUtilAbuse.C: Check, Remove, or Restore?

Keep this Defender behavior detection quarantined while you verify the file, source,…

Brendan Smith

CVE-2026-33824 Exploited Against Windows IKE VPNs

CVE-2026-33824 is now in CISA’s exploited-vulnerability catalog. Check whether a Windows IKEv2…

Brendan Smith

Spoolsv.exe High CPU: Fix Print Spooler Safely

Identify the legitimate Windows Print Spooler process, clear stuck jobs safely, isolate…

Brendan Smith

CVE-2026-65400 Exploited via macOS Screen Sharing

CVE-2026-65400 is being exploited against Macs with internet-exposed Screen Sharing. Check port…

Brendan Smith

Is Medal Safe? Virus Alerts, Recording, and Privacy Checks

Learn how to verify the official Medal recorder, handle antivirus alerts without…

Brendan Smith

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