All of our applications are validated and digitally signed by a trusted Certificate Authority which verifies the publisher of the app and that the application has not been altered, corrupted, or injected with malicious code. All of our book apps are signed through Microsoft Certificate Authority.

It is good practice to right click on an application - click on Properties and then click on Digital Signatures to verify that it has been properly signed. When you check the digital signature on our book applications, you will see the following under Signer Information: Janet Reed (the signer - also means the publisher) and Microsoft (the issuer and Certificate Authority). We don't know which antivirus software you are using. There are over 70 different brands today joined in the fight against cybercriminals. Each has their own critieria and virus signature database. In this, you may or may not experience a false positive when installing our apps, but we want to be transparent and give you a heads-up should you encounter an alert from your AV provider.

Today, the cybersecurity communinity has resorted to stopping the spread of malicious code before it happens. That means flagging potentially harmful software before it has been officially analyzed and determined malware. A digitally signed application is essential, but even still, it isn't guaranteed to be virus-free. This is why antivirus software (including Windows SmartScreen) may flag a clean application. Learn ABOUT FALSE POSITIVES below.

Every issue-free download and installation helps us organically build trust within the cyber community at large that our applications are indeed malware-free. So absolutely keep your SmartScreen and chosen antivirus software ON. 1) "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?" The verified publisher (Janet Reed) is visible and the file origin states it is an Internet download. This is the normal install-without-a-hitch installation.

2) The reputation-based/protection-oriented "Windows protected your PC" pop-up...."Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk." You can then click on the underlined "More Info". Then you will see "This [file name] isn't commonly downloaded. Make sure you trust [file name] before you open it." Click Run anyway to tell Windows you approve and the installation process will begin.

3) If your antivirus software totally blocks the application file, the action will be terminated and the file will be put into quarantine. Your AV provider will say something like Threat found. Should you experience this alert, we truly apologize. We are an honest company but are bound by the current system. ABOUT FALSE POSITIVES below explains why virus-free software flagged as malware is a safety precaution until it can be determined that it is a real threat.

Should the file be quarantined, please submit the file to your chosen AV company for analysis through its provided submission portal. Indicate that it was flagged as containing a malicious trojan. This service is free and can be done directly from your computer. You will receive a determination ("No threat found") and its global signature definitions will be updated. The process takes a few hours to a few days.

The app file will not be automatically released from quarantine so you should re-download a new file from our download provider, FastSpring, which is found in the invoice email you received. In essence, you will begin anew and this time the global signature definition will recognize the file as safe and will allow the installation to proceed. Remember, you have up to 7 days to download the file from the link in your email.

While antivirus companies can sandbox a file to analyze and determine if it is free of malware (a thorough dynamic analysis), their initial overview of a new or unknown file is called a heuristic scan which looks for patterns common to previously discovered files that contained malware. Because this process produces both false positives and false negatives, its genuine value is disputed.

Why? Because it's not foolproof nor perfect. Cybersecurity AV companies have difficulty distinguishing a virus-free app created by an honest developer and one built by a bad player who hid a malicious trojan inside the app. What we need is a dynamic analysis system built into our personal computer, right? For now, the AV scans and Windows Defender are the best protection available and with some AV companies scanning close to 3 million files and websites per day, we realize they have a full plate. Microsoft itself processes over 165 trillion security signals each day and blocks 4.7 million malware files daily.

A true dynamic analysis is not performed until there is a reported problem. In the meantime, a very new application has to build a reputation which is based on the number of times it was installed and run with no reported issues. Lesser known software can solely be flagged because it is new, unknown, or has not yet built a reputation. Many applications do not reach the widely distributed status of software like Adobe Acrobat Reader and Zoom which are fully trusted. In our situation, content and photographic images are frequently updated to keep the material fresh. That means each new edition has to begin all over again to establish a reputation.

The AV companies risk their own reputation should they scan and approve a pre-release app as clean and then it gets altered by a cybercriminal. This can happen to (or within) any size software development company. The current industry-wide approach is to flag new applications as a "potential bad player" and otherwise wait for a red flag alert at which time it will be analyzed thoroughly.

Understand that AV vendors readily share malware-infected files with other cybersecurity companies to prevent them from spreading further. But files they analyze and determine to be clean and virus-free are not shared. ONLY THEIR OWN virus signature database is updated. 1) Our application is new against your AV software's virus signature database.

2) Our application files are very large. They are filled with many color images which makes for a large file. Bad players have been known to hide malicious code in large files.

3) Each of our applications contains the full open-source Chromium engine. The Chromium engine turns HTML and CSS into an interactive website which is what makes our educational books so different and engaging. The software used to develop the formatting of the books uses the CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework). During a heuristic scan, the structural wrapper patterns mimic packaging and compression techniques used by malicious actors to hide malware. (Kind of technical terms, but trying to explain it so you fully understand.)

4) The apps also include code that serves to deter and prevent reverse engineering and theft of our intellectual property. The pattern of this code has similarities to programs that hide malware. Again, when the antivirus software checks the file against its virus signature database, the similar sequence of bytes may be interpreted as a file hiding malware.

Please reach out to us if you have questions or concerns that were not addressed here.

janet-reed-publications@proton.me

We thank you for your purchase, your trust in using our software, and for being part of our fashion community.

With warmth and appreciation,

Janet Reed, Fashion Author and CEO
Janet Reed Publications