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Spyware on One in Twenty Computers?

Posted by michael on from the PEBKAC dept.

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."

3 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. One in Twenty???? by localhost00 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    LOL! That's an understatement. I see spyware on everyone's computer

    --

    Calling atheism and agnosticism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.

  2. 1 in 20? Thats all? by warlockgs · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Everytime I go out and troubleshoot a network I wind up with a LOT more than 1 in 20.

    I think someone has a spyware detector that is not detecting some of the spyware...

  3. Re:Spyware flaw by drinkypoo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Why don't you just set your mom up with ad-aware and spybot instructions? It only takes like three or four clicks on either one to update the detection list and scan your system. She could do it once a week and have no problems. Also spybot has an innoculation feature which will prevent quite a bit of the stuff from ever infecting you in the first place. Finally, make sure she has antivirus software that auto-updates every day, during the time she typically uses the internet, so it is likely to at least get updated once a week.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"