RE: Best spyware program

["Lett, Craig" <Craig.Lett () usfc com>]

Taken From newsletter () spywareinfo com
Interesting Article
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Microsoft Going Soft On Adware
Permalink | Top

First there were the rumors that Microsoft is considering buying Claria,
the company responsible for creating and distributing Gator adware.
Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that Microsoft's antispyware
program has been altered by a program update to ignore all adware
automatically. 

This seems almost like a repeat of the situation with Yahoo's
antispyware toolbar last year. Yahoo and Claria have significant
financial dealings through Overture, which is owned by Yahoo. Claria
makes the bulk of its income through Overture. Not long after Yahoo
included an antispyware scanner into their Internet Explorer toolbar, it
was discovered that they had altered it to ignore adware. 

Yahoo's toolbar uses spyware detection code licensed from PestPatrol
(now owned by Computer Associates). PestPatrol's own antispyware program
did not have the ability to ignore all adware, only individual products
if the user chose to ignore them. After experiencing a massive run of
bad publicity, Yahoo changed their toolbar so that it would detect
adware by default. 

Microsoft's first response to questions about their antispyware program
ignoring Claria was to refuse to comment. Their second response was to
flatly deny that Claria is receiving any special favors. They claim now
that the change was made in order to be "fair and consistent" with how
Microsoft AntiSpy handles adware from companies similar to Claria. As it
turns out, several adware products have been placed on AntiSpy's ignore
list. 

Whatever the reason, this means that Gator, Dashbar and other adware
could install on a computer supposedly protected by Microsoft AntiSpy,
without warnings popping up. Since Microsoft altered their users'
settings without informing them, those users may not realize that they
have to change their ignore list in order to detect these adware
programs. If a user runs a scan of their hard drive, those adware
programs will not show up in the results because they are on the ignore
list. 

The question that needs to be asked now is: "Can Microsoft's AntiSpy
program be trusted?". It is bad enough that they decided to move all
adware products to the ignore list by default. However loudly the adware
industry screams that their software is not malicious, the fact remains
that very few people want it on their computer. People use antispyware
scanners because they expect them to find adware as well as the truly
malicious stuff. 

The problem is that Microsoft used an update to the program to alter
their users' settings, without informing them. They may think that
adware should be on the ignore list but I seriously doubt that their
users would agree. Their users expected that the program would alert
them to the presence of adware. Since as far back as late March, these
users have been unprotected by a program they were told they could
trust. Well, that trust has been broken. Can this program ever be
trusted again? 

Update After I wrote this but, thankfully, before sending it out, more
rumors have surfaced about the Microsoft/Claria acquisition talks.
According to an article on ClickZ News, Microsoft has abandoned the idea
of purchasing Claria. It would seem that the bad press they received
over the rumor caused them to abandon the idea. I believe that odd sound
you hear is the entire internet breathing a sigh of relief. 


Craig Lett
Security Administrator
USF Technology Services
630 Kenmoor Ave SE, Suite 200
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
craig.lett () usfc com



----------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Webster [mailto:sophomeric () gmail com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 5:25 AM
To: Bapodara, Shyamal
Cc: security-basics () lists securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Best spyware program


I am not sure if my answer is on track with what you are looking for,
but I personally am liking the Microsoft Anti-Spyware program. It may be
in beta, but I haven't heard anyone on my network complaining about
spyware since I deployed it.

On 7/20/05, Bapodara, Shyamal <Shyamal.Bapodara () earthtech com> wrote:
> Hello Team
> I do like to test different so called "free"  software available 
> online. What is the best to test if they don't have any spyware in it 
> once it is installed? What will be the best way to test these with out

> compromising my system? Thanks
> Shyamal
>
>
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