Zeobit Mackeeper



ZeoBIT LLC
TypePrivate Company
IndustrySecurity software
Computer software
FoundedUnited States (September 2009)
FounderSlava Kolomiychuk
Headquarters,
United States
United States
ProductsMacKeeper, PCKeeper
Websitezeobit.com (archived)
  1. Zeobit Mackeeper Reviews
  2. How To Get Rid Of Zeobit Mackeeper
  3. Zeobit Mackeeper
  4. How To Use Mackeeper
  5. Zeobit Mackeeper App

MacKeeper has been launched in 2010 by ZeoBIT, LLC. In 2013, the software was sold to Kromtech Alliance Corp. The previous company, ZeoBIT, used aggressive marketing strategies to promote the MacKeeper software, which consequently earned a bad reputation for the product. ZeoBIT sold MacKeeper in April 2013 to Kromtech Alliance of Cologne, Germany. Kromtech could also be sued over MacKeeper, but a company spokesman recently said it’s working to address complaints. MacKeeper is an award-winning all-in-one system utility that includes a set of powerful maintenance features for optimization, security, data control and cleaning. It combines tool for Security, Cleanup, Optimization and Data Control. MacKeeper is an essential tool for your Mac. MacKeeper is owned by Kromtech, who brought it from the original developer Zeobit. According to Vickery (who goes by the screen name FoundTheStuff) on Reddit, “The data was/is publicly available.

Zeobit

Zeobit LLC (stylized ZeoBIT) was a technology and software company formed in 2009 by CEO Slava Kolomiychuk and located in Sunnyvale, California. The company specialized in computer security software and internet security. As of December 2016, it is no longer in business.[1]

Zeobit is best known for the bundled utility software MacKeeper. The software has received mixed reviews with reviewers being very divided as to the effectiveness of the product.

History[edit]

Zeobit LLC was incorporated in September 2009 in the US State of California by Slava Kolomiychuk. Zeobit has a management headquarters in Sunnyvale, California and partnership offices in Europe and Asia that house developers and the customer support. In March 2010 their first product, MacKeeper (for macOS) was released and in September 2010 PCKeeper (for Microsoft Windows) was released.

On May 13, 2010, the first beta version of MacKeeper, version 0.8, was released.

On October 4, 2010, PCKeeper (MacKeeper's equivalent for Windows PCs) (version 1.1.48) was released.

On October 26, 2010, Zeobit released MacKeeper 1.0.

On January 30, 2012, MacKeeper 2.0 was released with updates in security, data control, cleaning and optimization.

In 2014, a Pennsylvania woman filed a class action lawsuit against Zeobit LLC, claiming that the company's computer security program identifies problems that don't exist and generates false error messages to scare users into purchasing an upgrade. (see Holly Yencha, et al. v. Zeobit LLC, Case No. 2:13-cv-00578, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.) According to the complaint filed in US District court, 'Once installed, MacKeeper prompts the user to conduct a diagnostic scan', the MacKeeper class action lawsuit says. 'This scan purportedly detects errors that lead to the problems identified in Zeobit's marketing materials (i.e., performance issues, security and privacy threats)—problems that MacKeeper is supposedly designed to fix.' However, the Zeobit class action lawsuit alleges that after the diagnostic scan is completed, MacKeeper reports that it identified thousands of issues that cause the computer to be in 'critical' condition. While the trial version of MacKeeper purports to 'fix' a limited number of the issues, customers are encouraged to purchase a full, registered version of the security software to fully repair the computer. Yencha alleges that neither the free trial nor the full versions of MacKeeper perform reliable diagnostic testing of the computer. 'Instead, Zeobit intentionally designed MacKeeper to invariably and ominously report that a user's Mac needs repair and is at-risk due to harmful (but fabricated) errors, privacy threats, and other computer problems, regardless of the computer's actual condition', the class action lawsuit alleges. The Class Action was settled in 2015 with no admission of wrongdoing and customers were given refunds.

Products[edit]

MacKeeper[edit]

MacKeeper is utility software for macOS that claims to provide tools for security, cleaning, optimization and data control. MacKeeper and Zeobit were the official sponsors of the MacWorld / iWorld expo in San Francisco, California in 2011 & 2012.[2] It was acquired by Kromtech Alliance Corp in May 2013.

MacKeeper is often criticized for unethical marketing tactics, including pop-up advertising and buying domain names similar to the names of other antivirus programs.[3] Zeobit claims their affiliates were responsible for the advertising accused as unethical.[3] MacKeeper is sometimes referred to as a potentially unwanted program and is detected by some antivirus programs.[4]

PCKeeper[edit]

Mackeeper

PCKeeper is a bundle of most important system utilities for performing different tasks on the PС, such as antivirus, data control and optimization tools, drive clean-up utilities and much more. According to Virus Bulletin, PCKeeper has scored 91.9% in RAP test and was listed as number 6 antivirus in the world.[5] It was acquired by Kromtech Alliance Corp in May 2013.

ZeoDisk[edit]

The ZeoDisk project is a cloud storage solution that will also be integrated in to the existing Zeobit products.[citation needed]

Partnerships[edit]

In 2011 Zeobit partnered with Avira to integrate their virus database technology in MacKeeper and PCKeeper's Internet Security features. This partnership allowed Zeobit to offer internet security options for the macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris computing platforms.

Zeobit Mackeeper Reviews

Zeobit was a Microsoft Silver Certified developer.[6]

Zeobit was an official OPSWAT partner.[7]

Ratings and reviews[edit]

Com.zeobit.mackeeper.zero

Zeobit was a member of the Better Business Bureau. It had an F rating, due to complaints about its advertising and the quality of its products.[8]

Mackeeper scam

References[edit]

Zeobit
  1. ^ZeoBIT, LLC Business Review in Sunnyvale, California
  2. ^ZeoBIT is MacWorld sponsorArchived June 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ abReed, Thomas. 'Ongoing MacKeeper Fraud'. The Safe Mac. Malwarebytes. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  4. ^Reed, Thomas. 'PUP Friday: MacKeeper'. Malwarebytes Labs. Malwarebytes. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  5. ^Virus Bulletin
  6. ^ZeoBIT LLC - Microsoft Pinpoint
  7. ^opswat.comArchived September 15, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ZeoBIT, LLC Business Review in Sunnyvale, CaliforniaArchived August 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine

External links[edit]

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zeobit&oldid=1018304667'

On Sunday, white-hat hacker Chris Vickery announced on Reddit that he was able to access “13 million sensitive account details” on MacKeeper. MacKeeper is owned by Kromtech, who brought it from the original developer Zeobit.

How To Get Rid Of Zeobit Mackeeper

According to Vickery (who goes by the screen name FoundTheStuff) on Reddit, “The data was/is publicly available. No exploits or vulnerabilities involved. [Zeobit and Kromtech] published it to the open web with no attempt at protection.” Vickery found the vulnerability by doing a random “port:27017” search on Shodan.io.

Zeobit Mackeeper

Since his initial post on Reddit, Vickery has been in contact with the MacKeeper developers. Kromtech told Vickery that they have secured their databases. A post on the MacKeeper website states that the company “will continue to take every possible step to protect the data of our customers from the evolving cyber threats that companies both large and small face on a daily basis.” The statement also said that since MacKeeper uses a third-party merchant, customer credit card and payment information was “never at risk.”

MacKeeper is a Mac maintenance utility that has been scrutinized for its aggressive pop-up advertising on the web and the shady behavior by the company to promote the product. Users doubt the actual usefulness of the software and thousands were involved in a class-action lawsuit.

How To Use Mackeeper

This isn’t the first time MacKeeper has been in the news for a security issue. In May, a hole in the software could let attackers execute malicious commands on Macs when their owners visit specially crafted Web pages. That vulnerability was fixed with a software update.

Zeobit Mackeeper App

MacKeeper can be a difficult app to uninstall, and how to remove MacKeeper is one of the most popular questions received by Macworld.