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Non-Technical Users Talk Malware

Posted by Zonk on from the from-the-horse's-mouth dept.

swirsky writes "The Chicago Sun Times is running an article detailing the experiences of non-technical users after they were infected by spyware, malware, and viruses. We cluck our collective tongue and think that we'd never be so stupid, but this is a major problem that plagues personal computing." From the article: "The study found that spyware has disrupted the computer lives of 43 percent of surfers. That means an estimated 59 million people have spyware or adware on their computers, the study found. Adware is defined as tracking programs that come bundled with other software and that users knowingly download, although they don't necessarily want the adware."

3 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. News? by Hachey · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...stuff that matters...

    This just in! The Chicago Sun Times reports, spyware disrupts lives of computer users! ;)


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  2. It's likely the whole story was made up by Tezkah · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Look at his post, and see the plug at the end for the grandparent's website.

    Nothing but a stupid ad, probably has been posted many times before (the story doesn't even make sense, as you said) something that is happening more and more often with Slashdot (Turn off sigs and see how many fake ones are out there, its disgusting.)

    Don't worry about being a jerk with people like this, they deserve it.

    hint: If you have a link to your website, put it in your sig or profile, /. allows for it. DO NOT PASTE IT TO THE END OF EVERY POST.

  3. Re:It's not just the non-technical users by Tezkah · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Absolutely insightful, I've had my parents computer set up with a limited user setup for over a year without problems*. Case in point: "Ryan, your sister is complaining that she can't install this program for free smilies".

    When they DO need to install a program, for example the software that came with their digital camera, they can log out and log in as the administrator account. Sure, its a hassle, but much less of a hassle than using popups and things like that.

    Whenever I come home I do Windows Update and usually a Firefox update, then I check up on Adware and things like that (nothing found at all for over a year!).

    This setup has worked on my laptop as well, limited user accounts + no IE + no installing risky programs (ex: downloaded from bittorrent, closed source "Freeware" programs without researching), and you won't be getting any malware.

    I don't even consider myself to be that knowledgeable, and I can't understand why people are still getting infected with this besides poor habits.

    * the only problem with their computer is that they allowed my sister to install LimeWire, and while that isn't a spyware program, is still a risk (I don't trust P2P beyond Bittorrent, thankfully they chose an Open Source / Malware Free program) through installing programs. Sadly, the only problem with this is that my sister has downloaded enough music to get within 250MB of the harddrive limit, and they don't really want to buy a second harddrive.