Slashdot Mirror
Spyware on One in Twenty Computers?
SpaceDonkey writes "New Scientist reports that researchers at the University of Washington carried out a scan of the campus network for signs of spyware. They found spyware lurking on more than one in 20 machines and also discovered a serious vulnerability in two of the four spyware programs they looked for."
The flaw that they detected was undoubtedly that the spyware could be detected. Duh.
Lots of petrified grits
Isn't that supposed to be 1 in 20 WITHOUT spyware?
[sig] 10 + 10 = 100 [/sig]
From my own personal experience with family members, I'd say that number should be much higher.
In a totally unrelated story, it appears that at least 4 out of every 50 computer users surveyed have had an encounter with "spam" emails in the last two years.
Stay tuned for the next ground-breaking story about the near 100% mortality rate suffered by humans and animals exposed to di-hydrogen monoxide!
Any generalization is a stupid one.
We here at Spyware Inc are deeply troubled that
nearly 95% of all computers DON'T have Spyware!
To help capture a greater market, our newest
service will automatically install Perl(tm) spyware on any host posting to Slashdot, and even make it open source
We think OSS spyware is the future!
(Yes... this IS a joke)
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Cookies are spyware.
Dont accept cookies. Ever.
That is all.
For having a /. ID of 411990 indicating that you've been around for a while, 22 seems a bit high :P
Not sure if this is the norm, but a fresh XP SP1 install followed by installing Spybot S&D from CD normally yields at least 10 problems. This is before the computer has been online.
What do they count as spyware?
Windows XP
I've never scanned a network with a ratio of less than 3/4 infected with some form of spyware. But I guess it all depends on your definition of spyware. I personally consider any program that does something other than what it's advertised intended purpose is. Please hold the Microsoft jokes, I don't consider flaws in design as spyware, only intentionally deceitful programs.
Jamon
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
You could always run spybot search and destroy after you run ad aware...
and then run ad aware again to see if spybot installed any back doors.
Not mine, I only have drives full of pr0n.
I say we just grow up, be adults and die.
...is that 100% of these machines are broadcasting their internet address TO THE WORLD and no one is doing a damn thing about it.
My Windows copy is VERY secure. It's sitting right in the fireproof software safe I put it in two years ago when I started using OSX.
Since then I haven't had ONE spyware problem! Amazing!
No Cookies == No Login == No Karma Whoring.
Just imagine what you're missing
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
Hot Young Nurses seduced by P2P.
(by J.Valenti)
Mandy (21) "Well my boyfriend and I started experimenting with Kazaa, and it went on from there"
Mandy now requires five Gigs of LimeWire downloads per day. She is in fear of losing her job if her dirty secret gets out. She's turned to prostitution to cover bandwith costs
Mandy: "I couldn't afford the bandwith so Jane hooked me up with some mates of hers they had me performing for a webcam..."
Mandy's story is not unique. Yesterday she found out she was Gator positive.
It's too late for Mandy, but you can be saved. Stop piracy now!
Microsoft proposes that their own customer data collection layer (CDCL) be installed automatically with every copy of Windows. Then any software firm that wants to collect user data will have to pay a fee for it. There. Problem solved.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I was about to post an insulting homophobic troll when I read your post. Instead I see that you're using your Apple to pick up chicks. Carry on.
I've seen an University which the system image they made, and use to install in all computers, was infected with a spyware (from a file archiver I think).
So, the whole labs (120 computers) were running spyware in the background. Nice.
The other 19 were running Linux ;-)
One in twenty? More like one in five or worse. Of course, UW only looked for four pieces of spyware. IIRC, the latest Spybot definition file has over 12,000 entries (not all of which are covered by the strict definition of "spyware", but still...).
My current job is doing graphics and web work for a small computer services company, but at least once per week I go out on service and maintenance calls for our clients. At one place, the spyware infection rate was closer to 80%: Gator/Claria, Bonzi Buddy, Vomit Cursor, HiWire, IGetNet, BestWeb, Bargain Buddy, etc. One machine had 477 separate pieces of spyware and browser hijackers. Another had 25 instances of the same pr0n dialer. Even the ones that were relatively "clean" still had crapware like Webshots or WeatherBug that brought these commodity PCs to their knees. And don't get me started on Kazaa...
When I started doing this, I'd cut the users a lot of slack, letting them keep their Webshots or Benadryl Desktop Allergy Alerts. But after a month, the BOFH-nature possessed me. I have become an IT fascist: NO WEATHERBUG FOR YOU! NEXT!!!
Gah. Now I'm pissed. I think I'll go in tomorrow and schedule scandisks and defrags for 9AM Monday morning. That'll learn 'em.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Only 1 out of 20 computers at the University of Washington is running Windows?? Good for them!
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
I expected Windows' marketshare to be much more prominent.