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Microsoft Apologizes for Serving Malware
dark_15 writes "Microsoft has apologized for serving malware via its websites and Windows Live Messenger software. APC reader Jackie Murphy reported the problem: 'With Microsoft launching Vista along with their Defender software to protect users from viruses and spyware, it seems therefore to be an oxymoron that they have started to putting paid changing banner advertisements for malware, on the popular MSN groups servers.'"
Started to putting?
Does anyone proofread anything anymore?
What fool would be taken in by this?
Personally, I'm downloading SystemDoctor 2007.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
... on the FA comments section. Microsoft is going to kill Google someday. Some stooge at Microsoft knew this was a malware company, and they took the money and ran the advert anyway. Would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids.
ISR, Microsoft serves malware to ... uh... you serve malware to microsoft!
stuff |
1) it seems therefore to be an oxymoron that they have started to put paid changing banner advertisements for malware, on the popular MSN groups servers.
2) it seems therefore to be an oxymoron that they have started putting paid changing banner advertisements for malware, on the popular MSN groups servers.
3) it seems therefore to be an oxymoron that they have stooped to putting paid changing banner advertisements for malware, on the popular MSN groups servers.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Regardless, this is a really stupid oversight on Microsoft's part. Reminds me of the p2plawsuits.com thing. Shouldn't a person knowledgeable about ads be approving these beforehand (at least in Microsoft's case)?
do you know squarepusher?
Even if this were true, how does proliferating malware on Windows hurt Google?
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
AKA microsoft doing business as usual, is it not? Which is why in my book Vista et. al will be classified as malware until proven differently a couple of years down the road.
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
It's much worse than that. Each time you click a link, somewhere, a server dies.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Malware or Malpractice?
... building an "OS" that allows anyone else who wants to place malware on your computer the ability to do it without your knowledge. Please click "OK" if you would like to accept this Apoligy.
With Microsoft recently purchasing a company that specializes in in-game advertising, I wonder how long it is until Malware gets a hold of my Xbox 360?
Which is free to download by the way.
Risk Impact: High
Systems Potentially Affected: All PCs
Behavior:
Windows.vista is malware that gobbles up all resources on a machine and renders it unusable. Suggested solution is to visit the following malware cleansing site : http://fedora.redhat.com/
Gator apologized for advertising Windows Vista. "Obviously this sort of malware slipped through our screening process, " they quipped.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
Symantec says "SystemDoctor is a Security Risk that may give exaggerated reports of threats on the computer. The program then prompts the user to purchase a registered version of the software in order to remove the reported threats."
I completed the unpleasant task of helping my wife get started with a new HP computer, preloaded with Windows XP Home and a plethora of shovelware. We spent hours watching dialogs pop up suggesting that we download this, register that, and update the other.
Practically the first thing that happened was that Norton Internet Security popped up a huge scary dialog warning us that we hadn't turned it on. The next thing was a huge scary dialog saying that it had found a security risk in her system. The problem it had found was that it apparently ships with no virus definitions at all, and required about twenty minutes over broadband to download and install some seventeen thousand of them. The next thing was a huge scary dialog saying that we needed to register with Symantec (presumably so that it can give us a huge scary warning at the end of the free 60-day trial).
The next thing was a huge scary warning that we needed to turn off Windows Firewall, which to Microsoft's credit is apparently preinstalled turned on and functioning, so that we could use Norton Internet Security's firewall instead.
The next thing was a huge scary warning that we had attempted to change Internet Explorer's home page from an AOL signup offer to my wife's existing "my Yahoo" page.
Every time she launched an application a little yellow flag would rise up from the taskbar to tell her that Norton Internet Security noticed that she had launched an application.
And from time to time it puts up a message box with no apparent purpose other than to tell her that Norton Internet Security is running properly. "Exaggerated reports of threats on the computer?" "Prompts the user to purchase a registered version of the software in order to remove the reported threats?" To be fair, although it did prompt her to register, I don't believe it will prompt her for a purchase until the end of the sixty days.
But the thing is the most intrusive, obnoxious, offensive piece of crap I've ever seen. It makes Clippy look adorable by comparison.
Presumably she needs more than just an antivirus program (ClamAV). If anyone has any recommendations on a well-behaved, friendly security program for Windows XP that isn't in your face all the time, I'd love to hear it.
P. S. The reason we bought a machine with XP is that my wife has been stalling on a much-needed upgrade for about three years now, and what she read about Vista was what convinced her that we needed to run out immediately while we could still get a machine preloaded with XP. Do you think she is being included in these statistics that show that Vista has boosted PC sales...
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Too bad there's no flamebait moderation option for the twits who apply pointless tags.
Windows Defender is supported by XP and is a free download. You don't need to buy Vista to get or use it.
do you know squarepusher?
this is news??? is it really that shocking that the advertising people would miss something like this?
/. has stopped them serving pages anyway it appears =p
btw... does anyone know if Windows Defender would have blocked this unfortunate mistake from affecting a users computer?
the TFA dosn't seem to say?... and now
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
You're giving them too much credit. This is a case of plain old stupidity.
Reminds me of a UserFriendly comic
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20050130
Can't blame me for mod whoring "interesting" :)
The current method of influencing voters/consumers when it comes to issues that slow the acceptance of an public servant/company is to make a public apology to effectively put the issue behind them.
It's important to note that in most cases, it doesn't change anything.
[shrugs]
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
and btw i've heared it works on 2K if you edit the installer file to make it let you.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Especially to those who always claim "You have to buy from a big company, that's better than free software where there is no company that you can hold responsible".
Here's what you get: "Whoopsie. Sorry, our bad"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I think the right word is ironic...
More like, "Microsoft appologizes because a spyware company bought advertising from them, violating their policy, and the ad was shown to people in Messenger until it was reported and removed.".
-David
Plus, their apology and recommendations aren't any less stupid. From TFA : Microsoft recommends customers follow our Protect your PC guidance at www.microsoft.com/protect.
Let's have a look at their guidance: Protect your computer in 4 steps :
Step 1. Keep your firewall turned on
A firewall is useless in this situation. The user manually downloaded and executed a piece of software.
Step 2. Keep your operating system up-to-date
See step 1.
Step 3. Use updated antivirus software
That's exactly what the user is trying to do. The message lets the user believe he needs to use this software as a protection against viruses, spyware and whatnot. Plus, it's on a Microsoft.com page. You gotta trust Microsoft.
Step 4. Use updated antispyware technology
See step 3.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
can anyone tell me if their ad blocking software prevents the user from blocking ads on Microsoft sites?
Hope soon we will see the "Microsoft Apologizes for Selling Malware" headline.
MSN groups are popular?
I thought everything from M$ after Win 3.11 was malware!
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
Putting paid is a British/Australian idiom for disrupting somebody's plans or intentions.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
One last question.
What are the chances that Norton Internet Security will uninstall itself gracefully via the Add/Remove Programs control panel? (I certainly plan to set a System Restore checkpoint before trying it!)
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Uhm...and why wouldn't they suggest that. Given that they are getting paid for the advertisement it stands to reason that every time a user get suckered in by it that MS makes money on the deal. Sure it makes them looks bad, but now they get to make their little apology speech, everything is A OK again, and they still got paid through the deal. People who like windows are few and far between these days, almost every average joe user I have dealt with despises them, but knows no other reasonable option. IT professionals are the only place that I have managed to find MS fanboys. I had a security "professional" tell me how MS ISA server is the best thing since sliced bread and everyone should be using it as their firewall and proxy solution (enterprise level). I was laughing so hard I could barely breath to ask about his opinion on Sidewinder SecureOS or Cisco Pix.
Microsoft can do whatever wrong they want, because the populace believes there is no other choice to do what they need. The first OS that manages to be simple enough the average user can buy software off the shelf, install it, run it, and really have no flaming hoops of death to jump through, people will start leaving in droves. Linux isn't there yet, but it may get there some day. OSX I think may get there first if they solve the problem of the fear of learning a new interface and fears of software issues. Either way, once there is a viable competitor, I suspect the dynamic will shift very quickly.
On a side note, can you imagine how far a virtual software store would go for the unfamiliar user would go for linux? Browse by needs like you would any other online vendor, pick what you want, and it installs click n run style through whatever you distro of choice's methods are (well at least major distros, getting all the fringe ones would make for a monumental undertaking, but fringe distros are typically for those in the know anyways). I have been using linux for years and I still find myself stumbling across amazing packages I didn't know existed.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
step 6: recyle your pc and get a mac just like how vista intended
That's a known Mozilla bug. Instead of crashing when clicking on a link, the browser attempts to open the URL listed in the href of the A tag, and will actually do so if the server is reachable and returns a page.
This is technically correct according to HTTP and HTML specifications, but unexpected behavior with users used to IE's 'crash feature'. As a workaround, instead of clicking on a link, you can press Alt+F4 or click on the X in the upper-right corner of the browser window, which will close your browser window.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
DefectiveByDesign is referring to a campaign to end DRM. It's pointless and out-of-place on the non-drm related articles that get tagged with it, which I think is the grandparent's point.
I for a second really hoped that the apologies for malware related to the big brother functions in Windows Vista and the EULA which allows MS to take control over the computer as normally only trojans do....
Actually, now that I think of it, that should probably be step 3.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
they've been serving up Windows Genuine Advantage for some time now.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Apple should use the three screen shots in the article for their commercials. These screens basically sum up why Microsoft sucks, and why Mac OS X is vastly superior...
What was the final straw that had the wife decide against Vista?
But how do you sexually arouse a firewall? "Baby, you're *so* hot!"?
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem