14 DAY TRIAL // Bleeping Computer has filed a very interesting counterclaim against Enigma Software, a cyber-security vendor that had previously accused it of intentionally trying to ruin its reputation.
Back in February, Enigma Software, makers of the Spyhunter cleanup utility, had filed a lawsuit against Bleeping Computer, a tech news site that among other things offered help with ransomware infections but also provided reviews for security software.
Initial Enigma Software vs. Bleeping Computer was an overreaction
Enigma says in its lawsuit that Bleeping intentionally published a bad review of its software on its forum, favoring another product, which at that time was advertised on its site.
The lawsuit has not concluded, but most people who took a glance at the accusations found that a volunteer Bleeping Computer forum moderator had answered a user's question about three anti-malware tools.
Enigma Software got really mad about this on-the-spot review, even if the forum post was documented with links that helped support the moderator's opinion.
People who took to social media and commented on the several articles where the lawsuit was presented called the entire lawsuit ridiculous since it was only an opinion posted by someone who's not hired by Bleeping Computer. Nevertheless, Enigma sued Bleeping.
Bleeping Computer accuses Enigma Software of running a smear campaign
Fast forward six months, and yesterday, Bleeping Computer's owner, Lawrence Abrams, published new details about the state of this case, announcing a counter-lawsuit, in which he made a series of serious accusations.
According to the counterclaims lawsuit, after Enigma had sued Bleeping, the company allegedly engaged in a smear campaign.
The new lawsuit claims that Enigma Software or their agents had secretly registered domains and created websites using Bleeping Computer's trademark. Bleeping says that Enigma used this site to associate their brand with malware.
It all boils down to SEO and search engine rankings
Enigma allegedly copied content from Bleeping Computer's sites but hid it from real users, leaving it visible only for search engine crawlers, in an attempt to boost the fake sites' rankings.
Furthermore, the new lawsuit claims these sites were used to promote Enigma's Spyhunter utility and to classify Bleeping's Rkill and Unhide software as viruses.
Some of these domains mentioned in the counterclaims lawsuit are bleepingcomputerregistryfix.com, adware.bleeping.computer.remover.getridofspywareonphone.com, and browser.hijack.bleeping.computer.virus.spywareremovalfreetrial.com. Based on a quick visual inspection by your reporter, these appear to be websites that promote Spyhunter using Bleeping Computer's trademark.
As we pointed out in our initial story, searching for "Spyhunter review" on Google returns the negative Spyhunter review from Bleeping Computer's forum moderator as one of the top search results, which explains why Enigma Software was so upset initially and why, if the allegations prove to be true, they have engaged in this latter SEO poisoning campaign.
You can sift through the entire counterclaims lawsuit here (after page 11 is where all the juicy parts are), but here's an excerpt that you might find interesting.
“ In a matter of stunning irony and sheer hypocrisy, Enigma filed this lawsuit against Bleeping Computer, claiming Enigma’s reputation was somehow damaged due to an innocuous review of Enigma’s product, posted by a volunteer moderator on Bleeping’s site, which simply echoed, and cited to, the opinions of knowledgeable computer security professionals. Enigma’s lawsuit is plainly nothing more than an attempt to bully and censor Bleeping Computer, and to deter anyone who might criticize it - one more attempt in Enigma’s long pattern of threats, intimidation and litigation. Worse, however, is that all the while, Enigma has been engaged in aggressive, secretive, and cowardly attacks against Bleeping Computer, including ripping off Bleeping Computer’s content and pretending it was authored by Enigma, repeatedly misusing Bleeping’s registered trademark to trade upon its goodwill, and publishing blatantly false claims about Bleeping. As the following allegations demonstrate, Enigma conducts its business in a manner that is illegal, unethical and simply immoral, thereby demonstrating that Quietman7’s mildly critical statements about Enigma’s product, that so enraged Enigma and lead to this lawsuit, pale in comparison to the egregious misconduct Enigma perpetrates on a regular basis. ”
Softpedia reached out to Enigma Software yesterday and asked about the validity of these accusations, but the company did not respond prior to this article's publication. An update will be provided if Enigma Software wishes to address this topic outside court proceedings.