"Phantom Armor",Son Of "ShadowDefender"?

This is rather interesting:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=284217

Plus the last few posts on page one and two referring to
"Phantom Armor" at the link below.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=275972

Is this a revival/knock off of ShadowDefender?

regards,
noor

If this was an extension of the work that Tony did with Shadow Defender then that would be quite interesting but if it just a rip off (and it does appear to be "fishy") then I'd go nowhere near it.

noorismail wrote:This is rather interesting:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=284217

Plus the last few posts on page one and two referring to
"Phantom Armor" at the link below.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=275972

Is this a revival/knock off of ShadowDefender?

regards,
noor

Well, interestingly, it's been around since 2007?
http://www.phantomarmor.net/history.html

Might give it a test in my VM.

For now, a VM sounds very prudent.

noor

I'd be interested to see how you get on with it in the vm ssj100...a strange beast though and yes noorismail I'd be a bit afraid to try it.

The $59.95 price really puts me off.
ShadowDefender was much cheaper.

eskro picked up something interesting:
http://www.phantomarmor.net/support.html

If you click on "support@phantomarmor.net", it will come out as "support@shadowdefender.com".

Just ran it in my VM and I must say it's pretty horrible. The trial version doesn't even let you use the full features. Furthermore, they've removed exclusion files/folders etc.

I'm not one to normally start conspiracy theories, but perhaps Tony got bought over by these guys? Seems quite likely. If so, Shadow Defender R.I.P.

Just for giggles,I thank I will email them,and
ask what if any relationship they have with ShadowDefender.

Interesting.

By the way just last Saturday I purchased a registered copy of Shadow Defender with no problems, got an email instantly with registration key. avangate.com is the billing company that SD uses So Tony must still be collecting the proceeds.

arran, that's very brave of you to purchase software whose sole developer has not been heard from for over 6 months. Anyway, I suppose there's some hope yet as it is still able to be "physically" purchased.

ssj100 wrote:Well, interestingly, it's been around since 2007?
http://www.phantomarmor.net/history.html

Might give it a test in my VM.

I have my doubts as to whether it has been around that long.

If you look at the changelog at Softpedia http://www.softpedia.com/progChangelog/Phantom-Armor-Changelog-171077.html
All changes have the same date.
It also makes odd mistakes saying shadowmode instead of phantommode.

Is it possible that the money could be paid into the account but is not collected?

arran wrote:Interesting.

By the way just last Saturday I purchased a registered copy of Shadow Defender with no problems, got an email instantly with registration key. avangate.com is the billing company that SD uses So Tony must still be collecting the proceeds.

patrick wrote:Is it possible that the money could be paid into the account but is not collected?

arran wrote:Interesting.

By the way just last Saturday I purchased a registered copy of Shadow Defender with no problems, got an email instantly with registration key. avangate.com is the billing company that SD uses So Tony must still be collecting the proceeds.

I would say that the billing company avangate.com would be depositing the money into Tony's private bank account, But whether Tony is still alive and using his Private bank is another matter. But no one would have any luck in contacting Tony thru avangate.com due to privacy Laws and avangate privacy and security Policies, there is no way that avangate would give out any info.

ssj100 wrote:arran, that's very brave of you to purchase software whose sole developer has not been heard from for over 6 months. Anyway, I suppose there's some hope yet as it is still able to be "physically" purchased.

When you Purchase SD from the SD website you get diverted to https://secure.avangate.com a Reputable billing company, So I was quite confident that I was going to receive a Registration code which I did. It was a Risk well worth taking for just 35 USD and SD is a very good product, and I wanted it. I could of always hunted thru the net to find a Reg code produced by a key gen but that's not the sort of person I am I think that vendors should be given credit for their work if I use their Product.

I noticed this before that Tony disappeared around the same time frame that SafeSys and TDSS malwares came to light bypassing every Virtualization product except SD.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=276210

coincidence or something to do with this?

My Personal feeling, is that Tony is alive and well*,and that the key to his current state is tied to the PhantomDefender/ShadowDefender link.

Merger,hostile take-over,co-op, whatever.

In any event,while I would have loved to see ShadowDefender go forward,ever update beyond my current version in use,caused problems on my system.

I know that for others,they were halted several versions behind mine.

That said,this version works swimmingly.

I don't regret my $35.00 US,but I would like to know for sure Tony is OK,
out of basic human decency.

What would be nice is if some of our members with knowledge of the
Chinese computer security scene,could comb the PRC fori,for any hints,rumors,etc that might be afloat.

regards
noor

#Ps: no answer to my email to Phantom Armour,as of yet.


*Just a guess of course.

My own feeling (from correspondence with Tony) is that he would have informed me if he was going to just dump the forum or a takeover or merger was going to happen. He was very well mannered and I don't think he would have left the ends untied like this...but...(and I know people like the product) in my opinion there were bugs that (in my own case) caused such problems as to make me lose my confidence in SD. I think Shadow Defender also had problems with conflicts with other kernel level apps like Sygate Personal Firewall. Certain corruptions and glitches happened (for example other software losing settings Avast Malwarebytes Nero, lost icons etc and settings within Shadow Defender itself) that I know Tony was aware of because I had written to him about it that ranged through many versions of SD on and off right up to the last one. I think if something underhand has not happened to Tony (problems with the state authorities etc) (He mentioned to me that he was not allowed to view youtube etc) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China
or national service, illness or death then he may have (as a one man show) just found things to much to cope with in terms of demand to make the perfect product in a certain timescale. I know tzuk faced similar problems with the pressure/requests for 64 bit versions. In my opinion Shadow Defender never achieved broad stability, I loved it and others too swear by it and most of the time I would not have a problem but began to feel that there was something fundamentally wrong that was carrying on through versions and I didn't want to backup my drives not knowing if I was saving a problem.