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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624 Articles

RegAsm.exe: Safe or Malware?

RegAsm.exe is a legitimate Microsoft .NET tool, but malware can imitate or…

Brendan Smith

HxTsr.exe: Safe Microsoft Process, High CPU, or Error?

HxTsr.exe usually belongs to the legacy Microsoft Mail and Calendar package. Verify…

Brendan Smith

Sniffing vs Spoofing

Learn the difference between sniffing and spoofing, how attackers use traffic capture…

Brendan Smith

csrss.exe: Safe Windows Process or Trojan Virus?

csrss.exe is normally safe in C:\Windows\System32. Verify the path and signature, recognize…

Brendan Smith

What Is UsoClient.exe? Safe or Virus?

UsoClient.exe is a legitimate Windows Update component when it runs from C:\Windows\System32…

Brendan Smith

SASE vs Zero Trust: Differences and When to Use Each

SASE is the cloud delivery architecture; Zero Trust is the access model.…

Brendan Smith

Password Stealer Malware: What to Do After Infection

Password stealer malware can steal passwords, cookies, tokens, wallets, and autofill data.…

Brendan Smith

Trojan:Win32/Vigorf.A: Remove It or False Positive?

Defender found Trojan:Win32/Vigorf.A? Use the file path to separate WinRing0/FanControl or Dell…

Brendan Smith

How to Protect Personal Data From Scams and Account Takeover

Personal data can fuel phishing, impersonation, SIM swap, identity theft, and account…

Brendan Smith

What Is 127.0.0.1? Localhost, Ports, Errors & Safety

127.0.0.1 is your computer’s IPv4 loopback address. Learn how localhost and ports…

Brendan Smith

VirTool:Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore: Settings Restored or Threat?

Defender reported VirTool:Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore? Check MSERT auto-heal, policy conflicts, exclusions, repeat alerts, and…

Brendan Smith

How to Reset Browser Settings After Hijacker Pop-Ups

Reset Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, or Safari after redirects, fake virus pop-ups,…

Brendan Smith

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