Slashdot Mirror
The Average PC is Infested with Spyware
WoodenRobot writes "This article claims that Earthlink have discovered that the average user's PC has 28 spyware programs on it. More details can be found on Earthlink's spyware auditing page." Compare to a university study. The FTC is hosting a Spyware Workshop.
This confirms what I think most of us have known for a while. The average surfer using Internet Explorer or Kazaa (Overnet as well) is likely to be loaded with spyware. Kazaa alone can be held responsible for almost half of those infections I think. As one of the few knowledgable "computer guys" in my dorm, I spend a lot of time cleaning out mucked up computers. I see on average 10 or 15 nasty spyware programs, but I did see 1,500 programs and ActiveX goodies (I'd say maybe 200 of those were cookie warnings though) in this one computer I cleaned. The was apparently, an avid p0rn viewer with no popup protection or the like. Ugly... very ugly...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This was on a university PC, running Windows 98 SE.
Using Ad-Aware, it found, and I kid you not: 22,485 units of spyware.
The machine was so infested, it couldn't connect to the Internet (throough the university T-1 lines) because of all the pop-ups, redirects and what not.
In defense of the machine, 11 users had profiles on it, which under Win98, merely copied everything (spyware and all) to the new user. But it was astounding all the same.
part Two
Same university, brand spanking new P4 3.0 Ghz Dell for a big-shot professor.
8,000 units. The professor would click "yes" to every pop-up that came her way, not knowing/caring/reading, what it did. Then complained why the brand new machine was slow and needed a new one.
After removing the spyware, and explaining what had occured, she nodded sagely, and went about her business.
Next day I get a call from her...same issue, tons of popups.
She hadn't listened after all.
It's times like these I wish people like that would be given a Mac or BeOS machine.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
There's no doubt the survey is accurate - as an independant consultant, I deal with this all the time. I run Ad-Aware on badly behaving Windows boxes and show their 'owners' just what a mess they have. Record so far is 500+ items tagged by AdAware. Unreal.
This problem is on par with SPAM and viruses, and consumes serious IT cycles to manage. My usual couse of action for any new client is: SOPHOS AntiVirus, pop-up blocker, AdAware, alternative browser (eg Netscape, Firebird), alternative email client (eg. thunderbird). Not to mention religious use of Windows Update, a strong permiter firewall and replacing NT/2000 servers with Linux boxes running SAMBA, themselves fully hardened agaisnt attack. Of course, SpamAssassin is a must on the mail server.
It's a war. And I fight to win.
Something strange I noticed last night looking for lyrics on a popular site, is that I was prompted to install a "Free Access Plugin" firefox extension.
I tried searching google to find it again, but the only thing I'm finding is a page in german, which I'm not entirely sure is what I'm talking about.
If I were one of my users, I would have clicked Install, because I'd be jawdroppingly retarded.
The XPInstall functionality is a tradeoff between security and convenience, but just like IE's install feature, it's going to be abused.
Hopefully standard unix security stems the tide.
I'm not sure about Earthlink, but I worked for BellSouth and our install CD basically included spyware. It didnt have ads or anything like that and its main purpose (which it failed at, miserably) was simply to collect customer settings so that when they messed something up they could simply "revert" to their last known good settings. It collected no marketing or advertising info. At any rate, it was classified as spyware by Ad-Aware. So i suppose it all depends on your definition...
Matt
You have 1 Moderator Point! Use it or lose it! Is that a threat? -vapid