Prologue

Unlike other personal firewalls, ZoneAlarm Pro includes Application Control to protect against known and unknown Internet threats. Application Control monitors all outbound traffic to prevent rogue applications from transferring your valuable data to a hacker. With ZoneAlarm Pro, you're in control with the ability to specify which applications, known or unknown, can be trusted to access the Internet.
  -- http://www.zonelabs.com November 2001

The Gibson Groupies have been had. After being driven to the relatively unknown GRC website by the McAfee media hype machine, they were made aware - through the use of Sesame Street graphics, silly fonts and unethical hyperbole - of the dangers inherent in Internet access, and then swiftly routed to the extensive coverage of the ZoneAlarm personal firewall. GRC quickly established discussion forums and Zone Labs appointed their own representative to participate in these discussions, and still the Groupies suspected nothing.

Yet all the while ZoneAlarm was letting low-level traffic in and out of their computers. It wasn't until the fall of 2001 that Tom Liston of the Hackbusters accidentally happened upon the truth about ZoneAlarm. Today, with version 3.0, Zone Labs has dealt with the threat to their media image - or so they think.

But a good firewall will tell you about illicit traffic. A good firewall will tell you about attempts to access your computer, and attempts by illicit programs on your computer to access the Internet.

ZoneAlarm 3.0 is not a good firewall. ZoneAlarm does not let you control known and unknown applications. ZoneAlarm 'eats' up unknown applications without ever alerting you. You do not have the control ZoneAlarm promises you. You are never told there are illicit things going on in your computer. You think you are safe when you are anything but.

What follows is the actual correspondence leading up to and following Tom Liston's startling discovery.

All dates and times given are in UTC.

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