Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.
Jason Perlow, Sr. Technology Editor at ZDNet, is a technologist with over two decades of experience integrating large heterogeneous multi-vendor computing environments in Fortune 500 companies. Jason is currently a Technology Solution Professional with Microsoft Corp. His expressed views do not necessarily represent those of his employer.
Spyware expert Ben Edelman has written a great piece on anti-spyware programs and cookies. He tested eleven different anti-spyware programs against cookies from 50 advertising systems and posted detailed results including which anti-spyware programs detected which cookies and which programs detected the most cookies.
German Honeynet Project researchers report that adware company DollarRevenue is directly linked to a bot net attack exploiting the MS06-040 server service vulnerability reported last month. Bot net trackers estimate that one malicious hacker alone earned $430 in one day by installing malware/adware programs on infected machines.
The Federal Trade Commission announced their settlement with Enternet Media for $2 million for putting spyware on users' computers.
Webroot released its quarterly report on spyware today, claiming spyware infection rates are at their highest since 2004. During the second quarter of 2006, Webroot researchers found that 89 percent of consumer PCs were infected with an average of 30 pieces of spyware – a slight increase from the first quarter of 2006 when infection rates returned to alarmingly high levels after a supposed lull in spyware infections during the second half of 2005.
SunbeltBLOG asks "Is Zango partnering with a bunch of sickos? " I won’t repeat much what’s posted there because it’s too disgusting, but here’s the first part.
Washington State Attorney General McKenna filed a suit against Movieland.com and 3 associates, all California based companies, for "installing software that takes control of a consumer’s computer by launching aggressive and persistent pop-ups that demand payment for a movie download service."
Spyware researcher extraordinaire Chris Boyd, aka Paperghost of Vitalsecurity, has been pursuing Zango’s entanglement with MySpace like a trusty hound dog on a trail. Now Boyd claims to have proof that Zango was, indeed, targeting MySpace.
Ben Edelman has documented with screenshots, packet logs and diagrams the relationship between Vonage and spyware. Vonage is caught being advertised by pop-ups from Direct Revenue, Targetsaver and others, sometimes not in the appropriate circumstances.
Last week I blogged about Pushing Zango on MySpace and linked to Paperghost’s blog asking if teenagers are being unwittingly used to push Zango on my space. It looks like Paperghost (aka Chris Boyd) managed to create a bit of a stir on the subject and now it looks like Zango is on its way out.
Chris Boyd asked the question yesterday, Teenagers used to push Zango on Myspace? It does indeed look like teenagers, and older MySpace users as well, are being used to push Zango and not making a dime for it.