November 24, 2004

Windows XP and Spyware

Hat tip to Slashdot for this very interesting and detailed article regarding Adware, Malware and just how much harm to a Windows XP installation can be done from visiting one site. bq. How bad is this problem? How much junk can get installed on a user's PC by merely visiting a single site? I set out to see for myself -- by visiting a single web page taking advantage of a security hole (in an ordinary fresh copy of Windows XP), and by recording what programs that site caused to be installed on my PC. In the course of my testing, my test PC was brought to a virtual stand-still -- with at least 16 distinct programs installed. I was not shown licenses or other installation prompts for any of these programs, and I certainly didn't consent to their installation on my PC. Check out the rest of Ben Edelman's website for some really fascinating stuff. He goes into who profits from these installations and how to detect them and get rid of them. The detection and cleanup tool he uses most is the excellent Ad Aware. I use it here for all of our Windows-based systems and it does an excellent job. A free version is available here. Posted by DaveH at November 24, 2004 12:16 PM