The normally reliable eWeek did a dreadful job with a story last week that highlighted a report from Webroot Software. The story has the alarming title Webroot: Spyware Rampant in the Enterprise. And sure enough, in the second sentence reporter Paul F. Roberts writes:
Webroot Software Inc.’s State of Spyware Report for the second quarter of 2005, claims that 80 percent of enterprise computers are infected with some kind of adware or spyware.
Meanwhile, in the story’s 15th graf, we read:
A new enterprise version of Spy Sweeper, which is being released Monday, will be able to detect and remove sophisticated spyware that changes the configuration of Windows systems and interacts with the operating system at a low level, said Brian Kellner, vice president of enterprise products at Webroot.
eWeek didn’t interview a single independent source for this story. It was essentially a press release for Webroot.
I’ve asked Webroot’s PR department to send me a copy of the report and will comment more after I see it. You can get one from their Web site, but you have to provide a lot of personal information, including company name and the number of computers in your organization. Why not make this important study freely available for download? Hmmm. It’s almost as though they’re building a mailing list they can use for sales calls.
Update: Webroot hasn’t gotten back to me yet, but Paul Roberts of eWeek was kind enough to send me a copy of the report. I flipped to the Enterprise SpyAudit section to break down that frightening 80% number. And sure enough, on page 36 is this gem: “…cookies tend to make up the largest number of infections per enterprise machine.” Cookies! As I’ve written before, cookies are not spyware. In my opinion, Webroot is totally wrong to claim, that a computer containing one or more tracking cookies is “infected with spyware.” Ironically, Webroot even acknowledges this fact in a sentence buried at the end of the section (page 40): “Webroot will continue to monitor cookies until a definitive decision on whether cookies constitute spyware is determined.”
Meanwhile, there actually are some frightening statistics in that report, including the observation that 7 percent of the 60,000 enterprise PCs in their sample were infected with malicious spyware, which they define as “system monitors and Trojans.” If that data point is accurate (a point I’m not willing to take at face value, given the report’s willingness to exaggerate in other areas), it’s cause for great alarm. Even one such program is too high for comfort on any corporate network.
Ed Bott 
A copy of my e-mail response to ed is posted below.
-Paul Roberts
From: Roberts, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 12:16 PM
To: Ed Bott
Subject: ouch!
Ed — Ouch! A scathing assessment of my Webroot “State of Spyware” story on yer blog. You are, in fact, correct in saying that there is not an independent source in this story, and I plead guilty to filing the story before I had one. In my defense, the piece was more on WebRoot’s quarterly spyware report than on the product news that you call out (it was the 15th paragraph, after all!). But that’s not much of an excuse and I apologize to you and all those who read the story and found it wanting.
Blogs being a medium conducive to one-sided conversations, however, I just wanted to write and say that I hear your criticism and that I and all my colleagues at eWEEK strive to maintain objectivity and balance in everything we write. I’d point you and your readers to my more recent article on enterprise RSS as an example that’s typical of my work both for print and online — it’s product news driven (in this case, from Reactivity), but with input from an analyst and a customer (Intuit, as it turns out) that throws cold water on some of what the vendor is saying.
Secure RSS Courts Enterprise Adoption
Again — I agree whole heartedly with you about the need for independent verification in tech journalism — as in all kinds of journalism.
Thanks for hearing me,
Paul F. Roberts
Senior Writer
eWEEK Magazine
Not only that, but no one seemed to note that, despite Webroot’s pumping up the numbers (something we pointed out back in May), this report actually showed the numbers in this report went down.
Oh well, at least Roberts responded to you. He ignored our post on it. 🙂
I think we could all be better served by providing/reading more specific reports. Yes, spyware IS a huge problem. However, is it THAT big of a problem on the enterprise side? Most corporate computers are maintained by intelligent, well-trained and security-minded individuals/departments. They tend to leave little room for PC individuality (the root of the problem). I think the REAL spyware problem affects the home computer user. And, in that case, the number mentioned, 80%, is probably way too low.