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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727 Articles

HYFLOCK Ransomware: .locked File Recovery and Removal

HYFLOCK ransomware adds .locked and drops How to Restore My Files.html. Isolate…

Brendan Smith

Spirals Ransomware Encrypts Networks in Under 24 Hours

Symantec documented a Spirals ransomware attack that moved from an exposed IIS…

Brendan Smith

Starland RAT Hides in Fake Zoom and WebEx Installers

Starland RAT hides in trojanized Zoom, WebEx, and other Windows installers. Check…

Brendan Smith

Win32:PUP-gen Avast Detection: Keep or Remove It?

Win32:PUP-gen is an Avast potentially unwanted program alert. Check consent, source, signer,…

Brendan Smith

Win32:Trojan-gen Avast Detection: Malware or False Positive?

Win32:Trojan-gen is a generic Avast or AVG trojan verdict. Use the file…

Brendan Smith

Script:SNH-gen Avast Detection: Malware or False Positive?

Script:SNH-gen is a generic Avast script verdict. Use the URL, cache, installer,…

Brendan Smith

Avast Threat Secured Keeps Popping Up: How to Stop It

Use the Process field and alert timing to find the browser, app,…

Brendan Smith

Trojan:Win64/Lazy.PGLI!MTB: Meaning and Removal

Trojan:Win64/Lazy.PGLI!MTB keeps returning? Read the affected item, separate file, process, and history…

Brendan Smith

Avast Detection Names Explained: Win32, Trj, PUP, and gen

Learn how to read Avast detection names such as Win32:Evo-gen [Trj], what…

Brendan Smith

CVE-2026-53412: Update Zoom for Windows to Block Account Takeover

CVE-2026-53412 is a critical Zoom Workplace for Windows flaw that may allow…

Brendan Smith

mdnsNSP.dll Blocked by Local Security Authority: Safe Fix

Windows blocked mdnsNSP.dll from Local Security Authority? Check the Bonjour path and…

Brendan Smith

sppsvc.exe: Safe Windows Service, High CPU, or Malware?

Is sppsvc.exe safe? Check its System32 path and Microsoft signature, fix high…

Brendan Smith

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