Microsoft estimates spyware is responsible for half of all PC crashes and warns that it has become a multimillion-dollar support issue for computer makers, Internet service providers and technicians. Also, Brad Wardell of Stardock wrote an interesting article regarding spyware on common Windows applications here and News.com has an article about spyware and the FCC here.
House Probes Threat Posed by Spyware
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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“Microsoft estimates spyware is responsible for half of all PC crashes”
I think Microsoft if responsible for half of all PC crashes, and the other half is caused by….Microsoft. They shouldn’t use that scapegoat. Microsoft has a responsiblility here. They should make their OS’s more secure by more tightly controlling software installation.
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“I do not believe legislation is the answer at this time,” said commission member Mozelle Thompson.
I totally agree. Although sneaking software onto a computer is morally wrong, MS has a huge responsibility to NOT let this happen in the first place. I mean, I can’t even get programs that I DO WANT to install under Linux!
Microsoft shouldn’t ask the FTC to do their job. If it gets worse, maybe. But MS has been touting security so much lately that they should try to tackle this issue in the name of “innovation.”
You are talking crap.
Read Wardell’s editorial to find out how spyware gets in the people’s PCs in the first place, it ain’t via IE or OE. It is via normal applications. Microsoft can do NOTHING to fix this situation. As long their platform is so successful, spyware companies will still offer money to small game/app software houses to bundle their spyware bots. MS can’t do anything about it.
Such as on Debian-based distros ..
apt-get install <spyware-infested-app>
(or whatever the command is)
Would this not work?
I haven’t found that to be the case. In all my dealings with relatives and friends I’ve found the number one source of spyware/adware is through Internet Explorer. People seem to be too stupid just to say no. It’s not their fault really its just not something people have been educated about. Mainly because people seem to assume they need to install whatever it is to view a page properly.
lol @ Darius
Would this not work?
Sure it would. And that’s why people should use reliable sources. But regular people usually don’t care about how reliable the sources are they want their 10 000 free smileys and nothing will stop them.
They don’t care before it’s too late. Then they try to solve it, not by changing their habits but by using anti-virus/adware software. Sigh.
The users are to blame. They are responsible. They should be punished for being so ignorant. Perhaps one day they will start thinking and… the end is near!
The solution to spyware is predominantly technological: Integration of mandatory access controls (as in Security-Enhanced Linux) into desktop experience. Using the access controls, spyware will be able to do only what the user authorized it to do.
The violations of user rights caused by spyware are of comparable severity to that caused by video-cameras stealthily installed by third parties in the user’s private home.
it would be really funny, i mean really really funny if MS actually had spyware of its own in its os. that or theres some hidden inside the kernel of linux that those supposed eyes that are looking at the code havent noticed
The solution to spyware is predominantly technological: Integration of mandatory access controls (as in Security-Enhanced Linux) into desktop experience. Using the access controls, spyware will be able to do only what the user authorized it to do.
That’s only a part of the solution. Despite the fact that so many people seem to think that the whole “trusted computing” thing is evil and wrong, when you combine it with mandatory access controls, managed code, and code auditing, you begin to have a safe system. Not possible while using only one of the technologies alone.
The violations of user rights caused by spyware are of comparable severity to that caused by video-cameras stealthily installed by third parties in the user’s private home.
Too true.
The solution to spyware is predominantly technological: Integration of mandatory access controls (as in Security-Enhanced Linux) into desktop experience. Using the access controls, spyware will be able to do only what the user authorized it to do.
No, much like security in general, the problems (and hence the solutions) are *social*.
ACLs are handy, but they’re not likely to ever be particularly powerful on end user systems because they require a great deal of understanding to use properly.
Added to that, they’ll be pointless anyway – all that will happen is the installer for $SPYWARE_INFESTED_APP will pop up a box that says “I need to adjust your system security settings to work properly, please type in your password below:” and then adjust the ACLs so they don’t do anything.
As long as computers are capable of doing whatever the user tells them to, spyware, worms, trojans, viruses and any other forms of malicious code, will remain a problem.
The biggest security risk on any computer, the main vector for nearly every piece of malicious code it will ever execute, the one problem that, if fixed, would cut “infection rates” by 95 – 99%, is the person sitting in front of the keyboard.
<< they want their 10 000 free smileys and nothing will stop them. >>
….and screensavers, and wallpaper, and icons and pointers and fonts and little freeware utilities, and forwarded jokes and flash movies in their email… A lot of these ppl are the same ones who surf the internet, write email and play solitaire. No technical concept or ability in their head whatsoever. These are the same ppl that drive around stupidly, like pulling out in front of you without looking and making you slam on the brakes. Give the lusers thin clients and terminals
MS does add spyware in the name of Alexia
When you run Windows, it crashes all the time, even when you don’t use anything else but Microsoft products or products from well known companies (Adobe, …)
So, since half of the crashes are due to spyware, Windows must be considered spyware :-))
When you run Windows, it crashes all the time, even when you don’t use anything else but Microsoft products or products from well known companies (Adobe, …)
Of course, you left out crappy drivers, which makes up most of the other half