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"BibleWorks Has Been Flagged by an Antivirus Program"
Author: R G Reference Number: AA-03022 Views: 14924 Created: 2016-05-26 19:49 Last Updated: 2017-09-25 12:25 100 Rating/ 2 Voters

Commercial antivirus programs can issue updates that, without warning, flag BibleWorks components as malware.  Antivirus programs scan installed components searching, based on a proprietary algorithm, for "signatures" of malware code in the component.  Unhappily, harmless components can also contain triggering signatures, especially if the signature hasn't been developed carefully.  We've found that major antivirus programs such as Norton and McAfee typically use enough care in constructing signatures that this problem of triggering by a harmless component doesn't frequently occur.

Another expedient that frequently clears up the problem is for the customer to update his/her antivirus software to the current version.

If that expedient doesn't solve the problem, customers should report it to BibleWorks.  When BibleWorks becomes aware of this problem, we submit a "false positive" report to the antivirus vendor in question, and that vendor subsequently issues an update to its detection software permitting BibleWorks to run unhindered again.  Customers receiving a persistent malware report on a BibleWorks component from an antivirus program should report the version number of that program to us, together with an identification and version number of the BibleWorks component that was flagged.

While the vendor is responding to our "false positive" report, there are two alternative steps that BibleWorks customers can take:

1.  Consult the vendor's web site for instructions on how to specify that its detection software bypass the BibleWorks component in question.  For example, here are bypass instructions that can be used with Windows Defender.  For information on how to handle "quarantined files", view this article.  (Scroll down in the article to view the section that addresses this matter.)  Here are steps that can be taken with Trend Micro to restore files from quarantine.  Please be assured that BibleWorks has been extensively checked to ensure it contains no malware, and, especially if the BibleWorks component in question has been released and fielded to our thousands of customers for even a short time, the chances it contains malware are essentially nil.

2.  Install detection software from a different vendor and disable the original vendor's software.

In both cases, BibleWorks may need to be reinstalled if the original detection has removed or irretrievably quarantined the BibleWorks component.

Last updated: RG/September 25, 2017