McAfee lists Adware in Top 10 Viruses

joelethan writes "In the new sensitive, caring world of Windows security McAfee Virusscan detects adware/malware, just like its competitors. A surprising consequence is that the McAfee's Regional Virus Info now regularly shows adware in its infection top ten. It feels so good to see old favorites like 180Search and DFC listed. "Now for your listening pleasure it's Adware.Gator at number 7 with a bullet..." "

Comments

It's about time...

[Pig Hogger]

But when will the financial geniuses at Symantec decide to start exacting a "fee" to spyware vendors to remove their malware from the list????

Re:It's about time...

[throughthewire]

Try suing spyware creators for illegally placing it on your machine. You'd have quite a fight on your hands to prove you didn't install it yourself.

After having researched a spyware infection recently, I disagree.

The folks at the CTD filed a complaint [warning: PDF] with the FTC that explains pretty clearly how the crapware can be installed without explicit user approval, and how difficult it is to remove.

And Tom Liston might make a nice expert witness: Follow the Bouncing Malware

So I guess Gator was right....

[kawika]

It's not spyware, it's a virus! McAfee says so.

About time...

[salvorHardin]

..it was recognised for what it is. Here, in the UK, such software falls foul of the Computer Misuse Act (which is due for an update). Personally, I already spend far too much time removing Adware, Spyware, BHOs, et cetera from Windows machines, especially at one site, where they seem to actually think CoolWebSearch really is cool.

good move/about time

[Chuck Bucket]

This is a good move, currently I'm helping my mom's next door neighbor trouble shoot her Dell...1000 miles away! My mom has dial up, but her computer is just chocked by viruii and adware. She's new to the internet, so she thinks if she just does whatever she'll be ok.

Also, the McAfee trial she was using didn't catch much, I suppose she didn't have updated pattens, but with a dial up, is it possible/easy to get updates?

I'm leaning on her to get Broadband, and then let me put Linux on that Dell...

CB_)EW____>>>

So the FBI can safely install spyware et al...

[h00manist]

Magic Lantern, carnivore, omnivore...

So how do you keep the feds from snooping you?

Prosecution?

[Renraku]

Could companies be prosecuted for exploiting bugs and vulnerabilities to install their garbage on people's machines? I don't know how many reinstalls I've went through, forgot to turn off the fifteen different settings in IE, and ended up with webpages spamming my desktop and taskbar as hard as they could by going to a seemingly harmless website, or mistyping the name of a popular website.

I recently fixed someone's computer that had so much spyware, it was running like a 66MHz machine on Windows 98SE. They were using a 2.5GHz with 512MB of RAM. The start button would take three seconds of griding to hit, and hitting it made three or four spam windows pop up, mostly about gambling, porn, or pills.

When do Gator &c start suing?

[dpbsmith]

I wonder how much money McAfee spent in legal advice before doing this... I wonder how long before the spyware vendors sue, saying that their software performs a valuable service, as shown by the fact that users deliberately and knowingly install it...

Re:Claria...

[magefile]

What was it Phillip Morris (Tobacco co.) changed its name to? Altria?

This is also a common practice in the adapted (as in, for the disabled) vehicle industry; most (not all) vendors do crappy work, overcharge, then change their names and/or move/disincorporate/reincorporate every few years to avoid bad PR and lawsuits. It's a very disgusting industry. And if you want to be independent, there's no real choice - it's them or nothing.

Turnabout is fairplay

[H8X55]

I figured you guys would love this...

The firm i worked at up until recently decided to do some "sponsored marketing" thru Claria/Gator. I tried to preach their evils to the marketing department, but my protesting fell on deaf ears. A few weeks later, one of the marketing folks called me into his office because he was having terrible troubles with I.E. Turns out, as expected his lappie was riddled with spyware, w/ Gator/Claria products being the chief offender. When he asked what the major problem was, and I showed him the ad-aware, hijack this, and spybot entries w/ gator/claria all over them - i think he finally realized. The initial short term advertising contract wasn't renewed, or so i hear.

If more comapnies knew how bad these apps are, and what problems they created, maybe they wouldn't want their services and products advertised in this manner.

One word...lawsuit...

[NIN1385]

When is somebody going to step up to the plate and sue these companies for defacing personal property? They get away with it every day and there are laws against it. Plain and simple they are destroying people's property without their permission, at least not any signatures that would hold up in court. All it will take is for one company to sue these companies, and others will follow...at least our company will!

Adware/Malware

[bannerman]

The problem with Adware/Spyware/whatever isn't so much the invasion of privacy part. After all, in most cases, you did click accept at some point. That's what happens when you need your pr0nzor or bikini calendar so much that you don't care where it comes from, you deserve it. The problem is the lousy implimentation of the invasion of privacy.

I helped a friend diagnose his constantly crashing computer remotely one time and found that he had over 18,000 individual copies of some type of CoolWeb in his Windows\System folder.

The real problem isn't with New.net hijacking and sending people to other domains; the real problem is when their software breaks and you can't use any TCP/IP related applications until you find someone with some technical know-how to fix it.

These bastards should be liable for this sort of thing. Actually, they probably are.