# Beware of false, harmful software claiming to be balenaEtcher

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/beware-of-false-harmful-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/354328>\
**Category:** Discussions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2022, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/beware-of-false-harmful-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/354328 "2022-03-10T21:49:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andrewnhem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/andrewnhem/32/4284_2.png) [@andrewnhem](https://forums.balena.io/u/andrewnhem)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/beware-of-false-harmful-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/354328/1 "2022-03-10T21:49:25Z")

</div>

Please use the thread below to discuss the related blog post:

[https://balena.io/blog/beware-false-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/](https://balena.io/blog/beware-false-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![snyderpa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@snyderpa](https://forums.balena.io/u/snyderpa)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 2:56pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/beware-of-false-harmful-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/354328/2 "2023-07-05T14:56:33Z")

</div>

Currently, the address given in this article redirects to a subdomain “[https://etcher.balena.io/](https://etcher.balena.io/)”. Given the nature of the content of this article I suggest making the correction for the sake of accuracy and to inspire greater confidence.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mpous](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/mpous/32/4742_2.png) [@mpous](https://forums.balena.io/u/mpous)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/beware-of-false-harmful-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/354328/3 "2023-07-05T16:43:12Z")

</div>

Thank you @snyderpa we have informed our lawyers about it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![balena-username](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@balena-username](https://forums.balena.io/u/balena-username)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 7:24pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/beware-of-false-harmful-software-claiming-to-be-balenaetcher/354328/4 "2024-06-19T19:24:47Z")

</div>

You can make downloads more secure by providing checksums.

Even better, you could provide GPG signatures. GPG signatures would be really great: users could keep Balena’s public key in our keyrings so that any time we needed to download Etcher we could verify the download’s integrity using that trusted key.