Posted on 02/02/2005 7:23:03 AM PST by holymoly
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 affiliates as the spam industry. Adware is not just used to serve up ads for penis pills though. Sometimes legitimate companies - whether they realise it or not - purchase ad views from adware firms," he said.
It's hard to square Webroot's $1.6bn estimate with the observable size of adware market. The company looks to be on much firmer ground in working out how much adware agent makes its owner, because its assumptions derive from the public disclosure of firms operating in the market.
Stiennon notes that adware company Avenue Media claims the 2m PCS running its software brought in $7m of revenue per year in its lawsuit against rival DirectRevenue, whose VX2 package allegedly disables Avenue Media's software. Claria (the firm formerly known as Gator) revealed that its software was loaded onto 40m PCs, bringing in $90m in revenue a year in public fillings made in 2003.
From these two data points we get an estimate that each item of adware generates between $2.25 and $3.50 per year from each infected PC. That's an average of $2.95 per-infection-per-year, Stiennon says in a recent opinion piece on CIO Update. But simply averaging the two figures is a questionable statistical assumption and worse is to follow.
Stat attack
Webroot's spy audit suggests an average PC on the net (whatever that is) has at "least two pieces of adware on it". ClickZ Stats indicate that there are 280m active PCs on the internet. Multiplying the number of PCs by the average number of adware items on each by the revenue per app figure allows Stiennon to guesstimate that the illicit advertising market is worth $1.6bn a year.
This calculation assumes a uniform distribution of spyware, among other statistical sins. Estimates on the damage caused by malware are a notoriously inexact science. The same seems to apply to looking at the adware market.
Stiennon told El Reg that machines loaded with more than three pieces of adware slow down to the extent they are less effective cash generators. This may be the case but we remain unconvinced about Webroot's headline figure for the illicit ad market of $1.6bn, which it compares to the $10bn a year pulled in by Google, Yahoo! DoubleClick et al. ®
This is just the money made from adware.
How much money is made by anti-virus, anti-adware, pop-up blocker companies and such to stop the adware?
What I want to know are who are the F$@!$$ idiots who respond to and make purchases from slimeware advertisements. The ones who make this worthwhile to do.
An even more compelling idea is the potential for joint ventures between purveyors of and slayers of slimeware.
Am tech challenged and don't know what to do.
I have the same problem. I can't get it off and my husband is gone, so he's no help.
=0)
Kim Komando (computer babe with her own radio show) has a neat trick to screw up the spyware. Here is what she has to say about it:
http://www.komando.com/tips_show.asp?showID=7724
Our organization has about 22,000 computers.
If we are any indication, these guys are making a LOT more than this.
It is unusual to find a PC with less than 50 pieces of spyware. The current record here is 2,275 individual pieces of Malware.
It has got so bad that we simply reformat and start over, the PC's are so compromised that recovery is iffy at best.
We are on the verge of ditching IE completely and going to a different browser entirely, Firefox or some alternative.
The part that really irritates me is that IE INTENTIONALLY lets it happen. Microsoft is putting in jeopardy its very existance by continueing to enable this to happen.
Cheers,
knews hound
...and thanks, btw
Denny Crane: "I want two things. First God and then Fox News."
Denny Crane: "I want two things. First God and then Fox News."
I had the same thing -- Norton couldn't remove and I couldn't delete the file "because it was in use." Finally realized it was a "startup" file, so was always in use ( think a Freeper posted this info ).
So go to the startup and then delete the file.
A Freeper posted not too long ago that you can hit Control-alternate-delete to see what files are running.-- Good luck.
I don't know what it is. Some program that keeps trying to access the net, and it's driving me crazy.
Don't know where I could have triggered it from, because I'm careful as to where I go on the internet.
I'm not computer literate, and I have
The same thing you do to protect your car or your home.
1. If you can afford, switch to Macintosh. Since Mac holds only 4-5% of the market, viruses and spyware is rare. Sort of buying a vehicle thieves do not fancy or can not resell.
If not, use the multilayer approach. (If you are uncomfortable with any of the described steps, pls. ask a friend to lend a hand.)
1. Download free version of AVG antivirus, free vesrsion of SpyBOT, free version of ADAWARE and free version of ZONE ALARM. Download MOZZILA browser and Mozzila email client. Burn everything to CD.
2. Buy new hard drive. DISCONNECT OLD DRIVE. Install fresh clean version of Windows. DO NOT CONNECT TO INTERNET.
3. Install AVG antivirus. Install SPYBOT, install ZONE ALARM, ADAWARE, MOZILLA. Do not connect to the internet yet.
4. Connect old hard drive and copy data. Once finished, reformat drive and use for additional storage.
5.Buy router, Linsys or D-Link. They are dirt cheap. Follow install instructions. DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET!!!
5. Make sure that AVG, zone alarm, adaware and Spybot are running.
6. Connect to the internet. You are reasonably safe. Go to the Microsoft Windows update site and update windows.
Good luck.
ok, i have those, and they DO get rid of a lot (two words) but still PartyPoker pokes its nose in on my computer ... and recommendations?
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