Slashdot Mirror
MIT Startup Tests Top Million Sites for Spyware
torrentami writes "An MIT startup called SiteAdvisor has downloaded over 100,000 programs from the top million Web sites and tested them for adware and spyware using an automated system they've built. They've got a blog entry where they dissect 5 of the worst adware bundles they found. There is some amazingly invasive stuff in there."
That's the kind of plugin that I would be afraid to download for fear of spyware...
They should add a feature on the SiteAdvisor toolbar: "this site is often down".
lucm, indeed.
no complaints about the article linking to a blog? what's the world coming to? ;)
They claim to have tested the top million Web sites, but goatse and tubgirl aren't in there, so they can't have.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/slashdot.org/
I plan on contesting the results, they plainly haven't investigated hard enough.
BOO
Odds are good that some Slashdot readers are involved in producing and propagating spyware. (Lots of us, lots of it. You do the math.)
How about you fake your IP, make a new account, post as Anonymous Coward -- whatever you need to do -- and give us an insight into your world, and the attitudes of the people you work for?
It just so happens I work for a large spyware/malware company, and I'd like to blow the whistle. My report on our industry is available here. (To access my tell-all, you should all click "yes" on whatever dialogues come up.)
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
< (To access my tell-all, you should all click "yes" on whatever dialogues come up.)
Oh no, it doesn't seem to work on my computer. Could you maybe help me install it? My IP is 127.0.0.1...
http://www.siteadvisor.com/preview
<pickanick> testing
<toqer|7boo> ya that thing is pretty friggen cool
<toqer|7boo> its like knowin which ho has ghonorhea before you bang her
<toqer|7boo> very sexy
<pickanick> cool analogy
<Drumstix> hah
Flipping through the pages, I found a few references to only Ivy Leavue Universities and overseas institutions (specifically Cambridge and Harvard).
Harvard moved overseas?
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
If you are in charge of network security in any capacity, you understand that it is "your job" to stop this kind of traffic at the peremiter, if your systems are so complex that you can't configure what you have to do it, get a Barracuda Spyware Firewall, I have said it before in numorous posts about Spyware and Adware and Malware ad nauseaum, why is this concept so hard for Sys admins, engineers etc to embrace? Treat the internet like a singles bar, would you screw anybody you met there with out a condom??? I didn't think so, so treat your computer/network like a dick. Use a third party protection device if necessary.
Do your best to educate home users, but talking about computer security is like discussing Politics, Religion or Sports at the dinner table, everyone has their own beliefs.
Sig Hansen?