Microsoft Acquires Spyware Removal Company

ack154 writes "Checking for updates on my new favorite spyware removal company, I found that Microsoft has acquired Giant AntiSpyware as of 12/16. I must say that it is very refreshing to see Microsoft finally start to take some serious action to help combat this rampant problem. According to the Giant site, a beta version is expected within one month for Microsoft customers (running Windows 2000 and later, of course)."

Comments

Discussion @ BBR/DSLR's security forum...

[antdude]

There is a discussion in Broadband Reports/DSL Reports' security forum about this.

Re:Stop using IE!

[freitasm]

Spyware and adware infections will not stop by simply using Firefox... How many users are still going to download the cute p2p program full of dialers, spyware and adware, regardless of using Firefox, Mozilla, Internet Explorer or even Mosaic?

A lot of people still download and install programs manually...

Re:IE?

[Anonymous Coward]

Erm? IE is tightly integrated into windows... You disable IE and well not much will work. They want to shove adds down your throat not make your computer unusuable.

three real steps.

[twitter]

Serious steps to eliminate malware/spyware:

1. Use and expand users so that you don't have to browse the web or read your email as root. Others should not be able to write your system files without asking you.
2. Obliterate the registry and separate binary from configuration files. It should not be easy for baddies to hide in a file that will keep your computer from booting if modified.

These are first steps, but they are not enough and you should not expect M$ to fix their problems. The only way to keep malware/spyware off your system is to own it and only get your software from trusted sources, such as Debian. Microsoft is so keen on DRM and pleasing others that they will never give you real ownership of any computer you put their software on. The ability to read your files and add/remove "components" without your permission is part of their EULA. If they can do it, so can others and the story will never end. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

Re:three real steps.

[Anonymous Coward]

Moderators: Please note that "twitter" is a known fanatical sycophant whose obnoxious offtopic rants are legend here on Slashdot. It doesn't matter what the topic is, he'll find a way to scrape in some pointless Microsoft bashing. While nobody expects us to love Microsoft in any way, his particularly tepid style of calling anyone he replies to "troll" or "liar" or "fanboy" because he happens to disagree with whatever they're saying is well documented and should not be rewarded. If anything, twitter is the type of person that should not be part of the open source/free software community. He is an anathema to all that is good about free software.

I'm posting this so that you (the moderator) have some context to consider twitter and not mod him up whenever he posts his filler preformatted rants about installing Knoppix or Mepis or whatever that unfortunately get him karma every single time and allow him to continue posting his trademark toxic crap (read on) day in and day out. You may consider this a troll - I consider it community service. And I ain't kidding.

If you're a /. subscriber, I invite you to look through some of his posting history. I guarantee that you'll be hard pressed to find someone that is more "out there" than twitter. You'll also probably notice he's got quite an AC following. Don't just read his posts, make sure you go through the replies.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check this post out. This is an article about email disclaimers. The parent of the post is complaining about the ads in the linked page and so on, and twitter actually goes off on a rant to blame it on Microsoft and recommend Lynx, because "is teh free".

Here's another. In this post twitter not only calls the OP a troll but attempts to "tell it like it is" while making some vague argument about "GNU". Yes, if you're confused, you're not alone. The reply (modded +4) proceeds to simply destroy his bogus argument. You will notice he did not reply. This is what some people call "drive-by advocacy". A sort of I'll just leave you with my thoughts here and move on to the next flamebait kind of deal. In fact, he almost never replies because he knows that his fanatical arguments simply do not hold up to any sort of discussion. It's not that he's chosen the wrong cause - he's just going at it in a completely wrong way.

Here's that drive-by advocacy and FUD in motion: twitter goes on about some topic and then drops the usual "oh and M$ is teh evil" because "WMP phones home" or some such. Called on his FUD, he then claims that WMP stores every song and movie you've ever played in a file, somewhere. Pressed further, he just sort of slithers out of sight, his FUD-spreading complete. This is not about some Microsoft technology that nobody likes anyway; it's about lying for the sake of lying. Way too many of his posts are exactly like this one.

More? Just read though this post and the subsequent replies. I guess this stands on its own. Or these two. Or this one. Or this one.

Still not convinced? This is what twitter considers "humour" while going about his daily "M$" routine.

M

Re:three real steps.

[Lotunggim Ginsawat]

My recipe for spyware-free computer with IE.

IE + Spybot Search and Destroy BHO + SpywareBlaster + Proxomitron = spyware-free computer.

Doesn't even have to switch to Firefox. And all websites works fine with this config.

Re:Typical Microsoft

[Johnathon_Dough]

I sure hope they don't start charging for this after the beta.

"Microsoft's tool, expected to be available within 30 days, initially will be free but the company isn't ruling out charging for future versions. 'We're going to be working through the issue of pricing and licensing," Nash said. "We'll come up with a plan and roll that out.' Microsoft's disclosure that it may eventually charge extra for Windows protection reflects a recognition inside the company that it could collect significant profits by helping to protect its customers,"
Article Source

Looks like they are investigating how much, not if.

SpamInspector

[delus10n0]

GIANT Software makes a product called Spam Inspector, and up until about 6 months ago, it was one of the best anti-spam products for Outlook. Then they started to demand yearly fees to use the program (when they originally sold it as a one-time payment.)

So yeah, I ditched the program and found Spambayes, and I haven't had a complaint. I'm bummed I wasted money on SpamInspector, though.

The history of ActiveX

[jonwil]

It started when microsoft created Visual Basic way back when.
They invented this new thing called a VBX.
a VBX was basicly a custom control in a DLL file and had hooks where VB could talk to the control and where the control could talk to VB.
The VBX evolved along with Visual Basic through versions 2,3 and 4 on the 16 bit platform.
Also, some other programs (including 16 bit versions of Visual C++) were able to embed VBX files.

Next we have OLE. This started out with OLE 1.0 and advanced to OLE 2.0 and to COM. The OCX (as it was known) developed from a merger between the VBX and OLE. It started out as a way to embed controls into an app just like a VBX. There was a 16 bit version of the OCX (that never took off) and the 32 bit version.
The ActiveX control is the evolution of the OCX.

ActiveX controls are NOT bad, they are a good idea.
What was a bad idea was implementing support into Internet Explorer for embedding ActiveX controls. And for implementing VBScript to talk to those controls.
I have yet to see one use of ActiveX on the internet that could not be done some other way.

Thankfully, I seem to be able to avoid ActiveX controls in my own use, the only place I have seen them lately is on some Microsoft sites.

As for those who say that some banks and such use ActiveX, well if I found a secure site that required IE to function, I would take my business elsewhere.

Re:Typical Microsoft

[Keeper]

You can get this same set of functionality by adding 'trusted' sites (ie: sites you are willing to run ActiveX controls on) to the trusted sites zone. Modify the internet zone activex setting which turns on/off activex controls to "administrator approved". If there is an ActiveX control you know is safe and want to be viewable in the "internet zone", add the control to the list of administrator approved controls.

Wish SP2 you also have the ability to disable specific ActiveX controls so that they'll never run.

Re:Embedded Windows spyware

[BCW2]

Not quite. A fresh install of Win XP will have between 11 and 13 instances of Alexa on Ad-Aware, followed by one more and 5 DSO exploits on SpyBot. Installing and running Ad-Aware and SpyBot is the next thing I do at the whitebox store I work at, for a format re-install or a brand new machine. No they are never hooked into the network for the first boot.