A software vendor reports a malware-laced GitHub imitation of Easy Data Transform that sat for weeks after reports—until the post hit Hacker News and the page disappeared within minutes.

GitHub has not removed malicious imitation software after 3 weeks

On the 31st August I got an email from a customer, telling me that they had found an imitation of my data wrangling software on Github. I’m not linking to it, but here is a screenshot:

It is using our product name and logo, without permission. I reported it to Github as an imitation on the same day. I got this reply:

A colleague scanned the Mac .dmg file from the repository using virustotal.com and got a whole load of malware warnings:

Using data recovery software Isobuster he found out that they have also changed the background image of the .dmg:

The new image encourages downloaders to ignore any warnings about the malware!

I reported this additional information on the 10th September.

As of the 23rd September, I have had no response from Github support beyond the original automated email. 23 days without a reponse. This is pisspoor. Do better Github.

I’m not sure what my next line of attack is. A DCMA takedown request to Github?

Realistically the only people likely to download the .dmg are those trying to avoid paying for a license for Easy Data Transform. I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy for them if they get their computers compromised. But I really don’t like bad guys taking advantage of my hard work.

Ps/ Always download software from the vendor, where possible.

* Update 24-Sep-2026 *

Github finally took the offending page down approximately 10 minutes after this post appeared on the front page of Hacker News. Total coincidence. I’m sure!

Moral of the story. If you want even the most basic level of support from Github, you need to get on the front page of Hacker News.

And it seems they are able to do things very quickly, when they want to.