• home
• bookstore
• tips
• software
• archives

Archives: Spyware

This broad heading includes everything to do with deceptive software - spyware, adware, and crapware - along with products and tactics to keep it off your PC.

Claria claims to be cleaning up its act

From today's Washington Post: Internet Ad Pioneer Now Shunning Pop-Ups A new service Claria Corp. is launching this month will still deliver advertising to the computer desktops of Web surfers. Only this time, they won't be annoying pop-ups. ... [Claria] began a pilot in May of a new ad network...

Trash your PC because of spyware? Rubbish!

This post is from guest blogger Carl Siechert: On Sunday, the New York Times published "Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster": "I was spending time every week trying to keep the machine free of viruses and worms," said Mr. Tucker, [an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D....

Rupert Murdoch, spyware magnate

The Wall Street Journal (paid subscribers only) reports this morning: Seeking to expand its Web presence, News Corp. said it is buying online entertainment company Intermix Media Inc. for about $580 million in cash. […] Intermix, which is based in Los Angeles, owns more than 30 Web sites, including sites...

Microsoft won't buy Claria

ClickZ News: Microsoft has ended its acquisition talks with behavioral targeting firm Claria, ClickZ News has learned from a source close to the discussions. Another Microsoft source later confirmed that report. A Microsoft staffer, who asked not to be identified, characterized the end of the talks as driven by concerns...

Spyware: Defining the problem

The Anti-Spyware Coalition, which is led by the Center for Democracy and Technology, has published a draft document that seeks to define spyware and other potentially unwanted technologies (announcement is here, document is here, both in PDF format). It includes an excellent glossary and is now in a 30-day public comment...

Whatever happened to SpyNet?

I wrote this back in February, shortly after the first beta of Microsoft AntiSpyware was released: There’s always going to be suspicion when a single company is making go/no-go decisions on whether a program should be considered a threat or benign. That’s why I like the community-based approach introduced by...

Trend Micro gets a new, improved anti-spyware tool

I didn't realize that Trend Micro purchased Intermute a few weeks back. That means Trend Micro now has a real anti-spyware program, based on SpySubtract Pro and renamed Trend Micro AntiSpyware. They also got CWShredder, which eliminates the horrible CoolWebSearch. The latter is still free, and I hope it stays that way!...

Dear Microsoft: Why should we trust you to detect spyware?

Yesterday, in an update to my post about the ongoing Microsoft/Claria rumors, I wrote: The real story is that Microsoft has decided that high-profile adware makers who achieve a minimum threshold of disclosure (including Claria and WhenU) will be able to get an "Ignore" rating. Microsoft earned a tremendous amount...

Boing Boing gets a big shovel, spreads BS

Follow the bouncing distortion: It starts on CNET, with a story that quotes anonymous "sources" saying Microsoft is "in discussions to buy controversial adware maker Claria." (The New York Times runs a similar story later the same day, with a few more details, including a quote from its unnamed source...

People are getting smarter about spyware

The latest research from the Pew Internet Project is good news: Spyware and the threat of unwanted programs being secretly loaded onto computers are becoming serious threats online. Tens of millions of Americans have been affected in the past year by software intrusions and many more have begun to take...

Microsoft to buy Claria?

From the New York Times comes a report that Microsoft is negotiating to buy Claria: For the last two weeks, Microsoft has been in talks to buy a private Silicon Valley company, a move that underscores just how eager Microsoft is to catch up with Google, the search and advertising...

This is not the Windows AntiSpyware Beta you're looking for

A new version of the Windows AntiSpyware Beta is now available for download. This isn't the long-awaited Beta 2, but instead is a refresh of Beta 1: In this second beta refresh (Build 1.0.613), we’ve made other enhancements to the detection and removal capabilities, including improved Winsock LSP removal capabilities and support...

Sometimes it's best to just start over

Brian Krebs writes about his experience trying to clean up a PC that was infested with malware: I just spent nearly seven hours doing emergency surgery on a Windows PC that belongs to a dear, longtime friend. The experience was so harrowing that I decided to blog it. Been there, done that....

Spyware cut in half?

This might be good news: The spread of spyware is slowing down, a Dell executive has told the Louisiana Senate's Select Committee on Consumer Affairs and Technology. The number of spyware-related support calls to the Dell helpdesk has halved over the past year, according to Mike George, Dell's vice president...

Huzzah for Eliot Spitzer!

The Attorney General of the State of New York filed a lawsuit against a notorious distributor of crapware (press release, full complaint). The best part of the complaint is the demand to fully disclose all records of its activities, including an accounting of all revenues. That would lead to a revealing...

Where's the patch?

It's Patch Tuesday, and Ryan Naraine at eWeek has the same question I do. Where's the patch? It's been almost three months since Microsoft promised a Windows Media Player update to help thwart the threat of spyware infection but, to date, users of the WMP 9 Series remain at risk....

Defining spyware and adware

The Microsoft security team has published an exhaustive white paper on the definitions of spyware and adware: Unlike other forms of software, which tend to either be "good" or "bad," spyware often exists in shades of "gray." With the exception of malicious behaviors, many of the behaviors could have legitimate...

Spyware via Firefox? It's true.

Last weekend I passed along sketchy details of a news report that claimed spyware purveyors have found a way to get to Windows users even when they use Firefox as their primary browser. I’ve now had a chance to test this claim and I can report that it’s true. The original article included...

Why you can't count on the government to stop spyware

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission released a 62-page staff report on spyware (PDF version here). The conclusions are sound, the writing is crystal clear, and there are excellent recommendations in the report. The brief press release summarizes the issues well: Based on discussions at the workshop and more than 750...

P2P programs spread spyware. Here's the proof.

Ben Edelman has done an epic research project to establish just how bad most peer-to-peer file-sharing programs are. In What P2P Programs Install What Spyware? he looks at five extremely popular programs: Request a peer-to-peer filesharing program, and you may be surprised what else gets installed too. I've tested five major...

Spyware in Firefox?

Vitalsecurity.org has an interesting report of a potential spyware/adware infestation that directly attacks Firefox users, using the Sun Java Virtual Machine as its installation engine. (In the comments, a security expert from the Mozilla Foundation notes that this exploit could attack Opera users as well.) I’ll look at this in more detail when I get...

How to fumble a security update

Microsoft’s response to the current flap over “poisoned” Windows Media files is a case study in how not to respond to a security issue. On February 15, Microsoft issued two updates to Windows Media Player 10 – a comprehensive roll-up that changes the version number from 3646 to 3802, and a smaller...

An update on the Windows Media Player security snafu

eWeek’s Ryan Naraine has an excellent update on the “poisoned Windows Media files” controversy that I’ve been covering here for the past few weeks. (See this post for a roundup of the confusion over the WMP10 update; and see “Someone at Microsoft doesn’t get it,” which I posted on January 14, for...

iDownload: Follow the money

Yesterday I published two articles about iDownload.com, a company that makes a product called iSearch, which is installed using deceptive techniques. The company has recently sent cease-and-desist letters to the owners of several Web sites that referred to iSearch as “spyware” or “malware.” It also makes commercial security products, including Virus Hunter, which it sells using...

Kids' laptop riddled with spyware!

I was depressed to read this post from a Microsoft blogger who claims to be involved with security: Argh! Kids' laptop riddled with spyware! I downloaded the current beta version of MS' new Anti-SpyWare tool yesterday and installed it on my kids' laptop. When I ran the scan, I found...

Support the fight against spyware

This makes my blood boil. At Spyware Warrior, Suzi just posted the full text of a letter she received from the legal counsel for iDownload. They’re demanding that she remove pages that refer to their product as spyware and/or malware. Suzi says: As owner of this domain, netrn.net, the home...

Joel Spolsky doesn't trust Microsoft AntiSpyware

Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software is rightly considered one of the smartest developers around. When he writes something, it gets read – especially in Redmond. So his remarks yesterday on Microsoft AntiSpyware deserve a fair parsing: So far, it looks like this is a nifty program, and consumers should be happy...

Why was Media Player updated?

Updated March 2… eWeek is out with a news story headlined “Microsoft Updates Media Player to Thwart Spyware Threat”. As far as I can tell, this story is almost completely inaccurate. Microsoft Corp. has released an update for its flagship Windows Media Player to protect users from a known threat...

New version of Windows AntiSpyware Beta is out

If you’re using the beta release of Windows AntiSpyware, be sure to get the latest update: Since releasing Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) on January 6, 2005, we have received feedback from customers and have made enhancements to the software based on this feedback. We have enhanced some of the real-time protection...

Trend Micro fails the spyware test

A little over a year ago, I evaluated five antivirus programs and decided to switch from Norton AntiVirus to Trend Micro’s PC-cillin. Since then I’ve been happy with its performance. It updates itself regularly, identifies and quarantines those virus-infected attachments that make it past my e-mail gateway, and is generally unobtrusive....

Kazaa mess hits the mainstream

An Associated Press reporter picks up the Kazaa story I wrote about last week. For the most part, the details in the short AP story are the same as those I wrote about, although I hadn’t heard this one before: Mary Still, a lawyer representing Sharman, said in an interview that...

A bold suggestion to stop spyware and adware

Ben Edelman explains How VeriSign Could Stop Drive-By Downloads. VeriSign, in case you don’t recognize the name, is the company that controls 95% of the digital certificates used on the Internet today. These certificates are passed out like bubble gum cards to any company that has an address and a check (typically...

Why I hate Kazaa (and why you should too)

Ooooooh, I love this! Australia’s apcmag.com has been diligently following Kazaagate, a civil trial now going on in Sydney’s Federal Court. Today, reporter Garth Montgomery reports on a whopper of a confidential document that Kazaa's owners tried to suppress: It’s a philosophical rant from [Sharman CTO Philip] Morle, which is printed...

How often do you need to scan for spyware?

Last week, in “Ten things you need to know about spyware,” I got some vigorous disagreement with two items on my list. It was good feedback, so I wanted to revisit both issues. In item #4, I wrote: “If you have to scan your system for spyware every week, you’re doing...

Six steps you can take to block unwanted software

Last week, I published “Ten things you need to know about spyware” and got some great feedback. Today, I’m following up with some advice on how you can prevent unwanted software from ending up on your PC in the first place. This piece, like the last one, is an extremely condensed (and preliminary)...

Ten things you need to know about spyware

Update: I've made some small but significant changes to this list based on excellent feedback from the anti-spyware community. I've also published a second installment in this series. See "Six steps you can take to block unwanted software." Carl Siechert and I are currently working on an update to our 2002...

Mossberg reviews Microsoft AntiSpyware

Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal reviews the new Microsoft AntiSpyware program today. I disagree with several of his conclusions. Let’s start with one complaint where I think he’s absolutely right: I found the program easy to use, though downloading it was a bit of a hassle because Microsoft tries...