---- EDIT - 19FEB2018 0330UTC ----
Hello all,
I would like to further address some of the controversy that has taken place this evening.
I want to reiterate and reaffirm that we as a company and as flight simmers would never do anything to knowingly violate the trust that you have placed in us by not only buying our products but supporting them and FlightSimLabs.
While the majority of our customers understand that the fight against piracy is a difficult and ongoing battle that sometimes requires drastic measures, we realize that a few of you were uncomfortable with this particular method which might be considered to be a bit heavy handed on our part. It is for this reason we have uploaded an updated installer that does not include the DRM check file in question.
I want to thank you all for voicing your concerns in a considerate manner on our forums and elsewhere. We do listen to our customers because without you, there would be no FlightSimLabs.
Here's the link to the updated A320-X v232 installer.
--- END EDIT ---
Hello all,
we were made aware there is a reddit thread started tonight regarding our latest installer and how a tool is included in it, that indescriminantly dumps Chrome passwords. That is not correct information - in fact, the reddit thread was posted by a person who is not our customer and has somehow obtained our installer without purchasing.
I'd like to shed some light on what is actually going on.
1) First of all - there are no tools used to reveal any sensitive information of any customer who has legitimately purchased our products. We all realize that you put a lot of trust in our products and this would be contrary to what we believe.
2) There is a specific method used against specific serial numbers that have been identified as pirate copies and have been making the rounds on ThePirateBay, RuTracker and other such malicious sites.
3) If such a specific serial number is used by a pirate (a person who has illegally obtained our software) and the installer verifies this against the pirate serial numbers stored in our server database, it takes specific measures to alert us. "Test.exe" is part of the DRM and is only targeted against specific pirate copies of copyrighted software obtained illegally. That program is only extracted temporarily and is never under any circumstances used in legitimate copies of the product. The only reason why this file would be detected after the installation completes is only if it was used with a pirate serial number (not blacklisted numbers).
This method has already successfully provided information that we're going to use in our ongoing legal battles against such criminals.
We will be happy to provide further information to ensure that no customer feels threatened by our security measures - we assure you that there is nothing in our products that would ever damage the trust you have placed in our company by being our customer.
Kind regards,
Lefteris