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Adware infections net the purveyors of slimeware software around $3 a year for each infected PC, according to estimates from anti-spyware firm Webroot Software. Using this figure and stats from its own malware auditing services, Webroot guesstimates the illicit advertising market underpinned by adware infection of home and business PCs could be worth up to $1.6bn a year. According to Richard Stiennon, VP of threat research at Webroot, the illicit ad market enjoys approximately the same growth rate as the legitimate market. But that's where the similarities end. "It [adware] has a similar bus model and some of the same...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Someone placed surveillance software on sheriff's office computers, apparently enabling unauthorized access to sensitive information about prisoner movements, confidential homeland security updates and private personnel files. Sheriff John Whetsel said Monday Spector Pro, monitoring software designed to track every detail of computer activity, was found last week on three computers in his office. Whetsel said he discovered the software on his own computer when he ran a spyware detector out of curiosity. A scan of all sheriff's computers also found the application on the computers of Maj. John Waldenville and Capt. David Baisden. Waldenville leads the...

A malicious script that spies on Apple Mac users was discovered over the weekend. The malware, which has been dubbed ‘Opener’ by Mac user-groups, disables Mac OS X’s built-in firewall, steals personal information and can destroy data. Security experts say these traits are common among the thousands of viruses targeting Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system but are virtually unheard of amongst the Apple Macintosh community. Paul Ducklin, Sophos’ head of technology in the Asia Pacific, told ZDNet Australia that the malware, which Sophos calls Renepo, is designed to infect any Mac OS X drives connected to the infected system and...

JANUARY 05, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Spyware legislation that would allow fines of up to $3 million for makers of software that steals personal information from a user's computer or hijacks its browser will get a second look after the U.S. Congress failed to pass the legislation in 2004. Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) reintroduced an antispyware bill yesterday that passed the House of Representatives last year but failed in the Senate. The Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act, or SPY ACT, defines most functions performed by so-called spyware as unfair business practices subject to U.S. Federal Trade Commission...

SAN JOSE – Susan Love's problems began with a smile. The New York City fund-raiser clicked on a happy-face attachment in a friend's e-mail last year. The virus crashed her computer within an hour. Love, 57, salvaged her data. But within a few months her computer's performance slowed to a crawl. In December 2003, she upgraded to a Sony Vaio with an extra-large monitor and Microsoft Windows XP operating system. Within a few days, "spyware" – programs that sneak onto computers uninvited – began sponging up valuable memory. Then her e-mail stopped arriving. Instead of crafting holiday e-mails, she spent...

I am a frequent Drudgereport.com visitor - in fact, it's my homepage. Unfortunately, Matt Drudge is using a new type of popup ad which will open the window even if you use anti-popup software. I am also an afficianado, as I'm sure many other FReepers are, of anti-popup software. I don't mind seeing ads when I browse, but popups are very intrusive and often end up crashing my web browser, or hanging it for a minute or three at a time. BTW, the anti-popup software I use is built into the free & excellent Google Toolbar, available from http://toolbar.google.com/ I...

Companies that use free software downloads to target Web surfers with annoying ads are turning on each other to keep customers--and the cash they generate--for themselves. The tactic is in the spotlight in a little-noticed legal dispute unfolding in Seattle. Caribbean-based ad company Avenue Media last month accused New York-based DirectRevenue of using competing software to detect and delete Avenue Media's Internet Optimizer program from its customers' computers.According to the Nov. 24 complaint, DirectResponse's software detects Internet Optimizer and then sends a command to "kill" the program, a process that deletes its files from the PC registry and from the...

Corporate PCs 'riddled with spyware' By John Leyden Published Thursday 2nd December 2004 17:23 GMT Corporate systems are riddled with spyware, according to a study by an anti-spyware firm. Companies voluntarily using Webroot's Corporate SpyAudit tool had an average of 20 nasties per PC, Webroot reports.Most of the items found were harmless cookies. But average five per cent of the PCs scanned had system monitors and 5.5 per cent had Trojan horse programs, the two most nefarious and potentially malicious forms of spyware. The audit - based on scans of more than 10,000 systems, used by more than 4,100 companies...

I need help getting rid of an adware file that hijacks my browser and changes my "Home" page "About:blank" The Adware file is something called CWS/hijack.html and the CWS stands for Cool Web Site. I have tried everything and it just won't go away. Any help would be greatly appreciated

What is with the underlined words/phrases in FR?

The site has multiple forums for various computing problems, but the overwhelming number of inquiries in the last year has dealt with spyware, which on the site has a variety of less neutral names, "scumware" being one of the more polite. Scumware had been an epidemic; in the last year it grew into a pandemic, said Steve Wechsler, one of those drawn to Eshelman's site. Wechsler was tending bar at a public golf course in South San Francisco when he bought his first computer less than a decade ago. "I brought it home and turned it on, clicked on Netscape...

Strange start up program. Cannot delete. Chooses new "gobbledygook" name every time the computer is restarted. Have tried several adware/spyware programs. They do not flag it. Internet search reveals no info. Does anyone know what QNCTFQOE.EXE is?

I am having a problem with my computer at work. While connected to the internet, with MSN as the main page, I am now receiving lots of popup ads which I never had before. When I am on FR, whichever thread I am monitoring, there are lots of keywords which are highlighted such as "sex", "love" and others. Highlighted in the sense that they appear to be hyperlinks. When I right click on any one of them and click Properties, the box thing shows a URL of ...Adinstall or something to that effect. I have also had, right out of...

Go to this page of Major Geeks, and let me know what free spyware/adware you in-the-know recommend. It has the following: About:Buster - A removal tool for Home Search Assistant, ie; res://random.dll/index.html#12345 Ad-aware Messenger Service Plugin - Plugin for Ad-aware that will help with the Messenger Service pop-ups. Ad-aware OE/WM Control - Enable or disable the Windows Messenger which loads with Outlook Express. Ad-Aware SE HexDump Plug-in - Find out the URL of the originator of a cookie in Ad-Aware SE. Ad-Aware SE Personal - Scan your system for ad-supported software components and remove them. Ad-Aware SE Personal (Executable Only)...

New Trojan Kills Adware Program isn't entirely benevolent: it also downloads files to infected PCs. Paul Roberts, IDG News Service Thursday, October 07, 2004 A new Trojan horse program that attacks and removes troublesome advertising software, known as "adware," is circulating on the Internet, according to antivirus company Symantec. The program, called Downloader.Lunii, was discovered earlier this week. When run, it attempts to kill off computer processes and delete files used by common adware programs like Powerscan and BargainBuddy. However, Lunii is not entirely benevolent. Like other Trojan horse programs, it also modifies the configuration of Microsoft Windows machines and...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Orange County man was arrested Wednesday on charges of possessing child pornography. Thomas Allen Bispo confessed to looking at the porn on his work laptop. Orange County detectives think Bispo was probably away on business when he was looking at child porn on a laptop. But he was using his company-issued computer and he thought he had deleted the porn. Deputies arrested 61-year-old Thomas Allen Bispo after finding 27 pornographic images of young children on his laptop. Detectives were actually tipped off. Bispo worked at Sypris, Inc., an engineering testing firm in Orange County. He...

Web surfers battling "spyware" face a new problem: so-called spyware-killing programs that install the same kind of unwanted advertising software they promise to erase. Millions of computers have been hit in recent years by ads and PC-monitoring software that comes bundled with popular free downloads, notably music-swapping programs. The problem has attracted dozens of companies seeking to profit by promising to root out the offending software. But some software makers are exploiting the situation, critics allege, turning demand for antispyware software into a launch pad for new spyware attacks. A small army of angry Web users has set up a...

Last spring, the public got a firsthand look at spyware's pervasiveness when it was discovered that peer-to-peer file-swapping app Kazaa was bundling a program designed to form a giant distributed network -- composed of Kazaa users' computers -- that could transmit information back to Brilliant Digital Entertainment, the company that created it. In effect, this network would use people's computers to perform work for Brilliant Digital. The program had been distributed with Kazaa since the fall of 2001, according to a document that Brilliant filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April. Even though Brilliant said it...

Michael Sands CMO at Orbitz Depending upon whom you ask, Michael Sands is either a successful user of pop-under ads or an apologist for them. As the chief marketing officer for Orbitz, a Chicago-based online travel site founded by American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United Airlines in 1999, Sands has overseen pop-under ad blitzes like Orbitz's current "shear the sheep" campaign. Sands, who joined Orbitz in late 2000 after highly successful work in e-commerce and integrated marketing for Oldsmobile during the late 90s, doesn't seem rattled by the complaints of agitated web surfers. He has seen that the ads are...