1476699
story
peterfa writes
"Sun and Google have teamed up and started a project called Stop Badware. This project aims to expose all the spyware and adware bundled in software and the companies that are responsible. While it's funded by Sun and Google, the research will be done by Oxford and Harvard."
Harvord! (Score:4, Funny)
While it's funded by Sun and Google, the research will be done by Oxford and Harvord."
Hay, I got my Computor Sciense degrie from Harvord Web Univercity! I'm an aluminumni! I lerned abowt it frum adware witch was monitering my /. typiing skils and sugestid I enrol rite away (don't bothur enterring you're credit card, we alreddy
know it, jist hit buton and you start on yor way too hire educatoin!!!1) (My sistor is going to Oxfurd!)
I try anty spywear softwear but, itt keeps flasshing lotsa things on teh screen with WQRNINGs and stuff, so I geussed it didn'tinstall rite so I uninstaled them all. Ihop this works betters!
Ad-Aware-Aware(TM) approved text
Mr. Grabpot Thundergust has 600,000$AM for you!
Re:Harvord! (Score:2)
Re:Harvord! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Harvord! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Harvord! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Harvord! (Score:2)
Google Toolbar? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Google Toolbar? (Score:2)
What is there to research? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:5, Insightful)
-nB
Re:What is there to research? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure - we can't blame it all on users and their badly managed/protected systems - but some safer computing with more brains could help
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
of course they have to make money somehow, but google manages just fine relying on the data aggregation they perform on server,
Re:What is there to research? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:5, Informative)
Google gets Sun, Lenovo (IBM), WebWatch (Consumer Reports), the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University together to form a group called "Stop Badware" that sends money to a bunch of students, who in turn setup a little website that "names and shames" spyware software. The website is to be visited by people that already understand what spyware is and how not to get it. Spyware makers to totally ignore the students strongly worded opinions.
Microsoft leads a group containing Lavasoft (Adaware), Trend Micro, Symantec, Grisoft (AVG), McAfee, Websense, Panda Software, Yahoo, AOL, Dell, HP, Aluria (Earthlink), the National Center for Victims of Crime, the National Cyber Security Alliance, the Samuelson Law Technology & Public Policy Clinic (UC Berkeley School of Law) along with another 2 dozen major security, general internet, public advocacy and legal organizations called the "Anti-Spyware Coalition". Microsoft directs this organization in a three pronged attack on spyware:
- Clearly defining what spyware is and what is does, in order to improve understanding among normal users, providing common standards for anti-spyware software, and helping to make spyware a concept that can be used effectively and accurately in legislation.
- Directly confronting spyware makers in the courts, hitting them where it hurts, their wallet. For example this week Microsoft is pulling in Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna to file a lawsuit against the makers of "Spyware Cleaner", a product that actually infects computers with its own spyware, and is advertised through misleading email and messenger spam. Microsoft has already had numerous court room victories against the spyware makers and spammers.
- Using the rigorous terminology defined in point 1, with the court precedent created in point 2, the ASC lobbies Congress to pass tough anti-spyware laws, closing the loopholes and grey areas that make spyware non-trivial to legally stop.
So to compare, one camp has declared war on spyware, and has assembled the best generals in the industry and the largest groups of regular troops, and launched a major assault on the spyware mainland, already capturing several cities. The other camp has gotten together at the local university to sit around writing beatnik poetry about how bad spyware is.
Re:What is there to research? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
As a research project obviously.
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Yes, but much more useful if they post a decent bounty and make collecting it as easy as using the local ATM. The downside is that spyware makers would be in short supply in about 72 hours. This could be defined as success.
Seriously though, the bandaid approach to computer security is never going to work. In my opinion, Microsoft is guilty of criminal neglect (amongst other even worse things) and should be prosecuted heavily. No one should be allowed to
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Even if that were so, what's wrong with more than one group taking on the issue? Also, while MS et al have the big guns, recall that the Sony Rootkit was
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Oh wait...
In this case there is a lot to be gained by stopping spyware but not as a final solution (filling the holes, making it so it costs them bandwidth and you no time)...
Microsoft likes nice easy rollouts and they get them when people think their next OS will make their computer faster, the truth is their clogged with spyware so formatting will make them faster.
Windows 95 is the fastest MS OS... asside from compatibility the
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Actually I'm sure that if I installed it on my amd64, DOS 4.0 would fly. I should probably remove Gentoo. And there is no spyware for DOS so aside from compatibility issues, it would be a major win!
I'm sure there has to a be a hole in tha reasoning somewhere though...
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
Re:What is there to research? (Score:2)
How? (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this going to be like the spamm blacklists which can be subjective?
Re:How? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How? (Score:2)
Personally, this [debian.org] is the only archive I trust to draw untested (by me) programs to be on my computer (companies I consult for of course frequently use "other" systems - and lose a lot of sleep and hair keeping it semi-clean). And the reason for that trust is driven by their simple, and effective, requirement to adhere Item 2 of this [debian.org].
Re:How? (Score:1)
What about Stanford? (Score:5, Funny)
Stanford and Berkeley snubbed by alumni, film at 11!
Re:What about Stanford? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What about Stanford? (Score:2)
Include Ben Edelman in this! (Score:2, Interesting)
[witty topic] (Score:4, Funny)
I, for one (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:I, for one (Score:1)
... overlords?
Where are the overlords?
Sun??? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sun??? (Score:2, Interesting)
Marketting value. Somebody in the management thinks "Teaming up with Google, Oxford and Harvard" is cool.
Excellent! (Score:5, Interesting)
PS: I'm waiting for Google to annouce its plan for world peace.
Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Interesting)
Google profits from spyware (Score:5, Insightful)
Google should do less evil by not accepting ads from these companies.
Re:Google profits from spyware (Score:2)
mal-ware sites would quickly stop using adwords if enough people were running an extention that was designed to cost them money.
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
"Google Announces Middle-East Peace Plan"
How about... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How about... (Score:1)
And then they could also show the information those companies have gathered...
OK, so it's quite a bit... better make it searchable...
Damage control (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Damage control (Score:1)
Re:Damage control (Score:1)
Re:Damage control (Score:2)
Google is a business, with two options to choose from:
If you expect them to pick #2, you're a damn fool.
Re:Damage control (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't expect them to not do that. But it would be nice if they stopped pretending to do no evil. I don't see any exemption in their statement saying that evil is OK, as long as millions are to be made.
Re:Damage control (Score:2)
Re:Damage control (Score:2)
So what? Why do they have an obligation to go into China? Why support totalitarianism?
The best thing they can do is keep with the market so that maybe they can make a difference in the future if they so desire.
Now, that's naive thinking. Google just wants to make money. What makes you think they care about making a difference? if they wanted to make a difference, they would take a stand - not act like every other apologist for China like Micr
Re:Damage control (Score:2)
I never said they had any obligation to go into China. It certainly benefits them, however, so why shouldn't they? Could you tell me how a company being in multiple regions is totalitarianism?
Re:Damage control (Score:2)
Why shouldn't they? because they are supporting a totalitarian regime. That is unethical. I never claimed that being in multiple regions is totalitarianism. I said that helping China's totalitarian regime with their censorship is supporting totalitarianism. Do you have any reasonable argument that it does not?
I don't
Re:Damage control (Score:1)
4 Google stories in one day? (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop Badware, bad bad badware... go to your cage! (Score:1, Troll)
Wow, this really reminds me of my last trip to the Dollar Store.
NewSpeak? (Score:5, Funny)
Project Ungoodware: brought you you by the Minisry of Love.
Wrong format?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe it might get cluttered with junk, too, though, hmm.
I wonder if a pseudo-moderated wiki capacity for a truly open editable document might work. Weighted by the user's real time previous moderations (+5 Neutral, -5 Troll, etc).
That leads me to the point, actually -- are there specifications for an open editable moderated document that falls towards neutrality in facts?
Google IS the problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Google IS the problem (Score:1)
Re:Google IS the problem (Score:3, Interesting)
And the URL is... (Score:5, Informative)
Small Step... (Score:1)
Re:Small Step... (Score:1)
Missed the bota (Score:1)
What's next
Spyware is easy money (Score:5, Interesting)
You would not believe the number of computers that went out of commission within the first month just from being overloaded with spyware/adware. I often feel the urge to tell them "Stop surfing pr0n sites. Stop clicking on everything in sight just because it tells you to click it."
But I don't. Because I know that as soon as I fix it, they'll just ask me to come over again within a few weeks. I seriously doubt they would listen anyway. As I said, easy money.
It is not the users fault (Score:2)
Re:It is not the users fault (Score:2)
Re:It is not the users fault (Score:2)
Why these schools? (Score:2)
do you think... (Score:2)
Good idea but... (Score:2, Interesting)
This is a Trojan horse - No one will see it coming (Score:5, Interesting)
Google has an enormous information gathering capability. Seen those Goooooooogle ADS everywhere? While it may not be spy-WARE per say... it certainly feeds you a cookie. Noticed how MANY of these Goooooogle ADS sites there are? Theyre just popping up everywhere arent they?! Yes they are - and you dont even give it a second thought while you throw yourself into the Google anti-spyware projects. Google dont want competitors. A Spyware program is a competitor of Google as it gathers information about the users surfing habits just like Google does - but in a much more intrusive way (well...at least if feels that way).
Are we getting the picture yet?
Re:This is a Trojan horse - No one will see it com (Score:2)
Google now produces several pieces of desktop software, including a browser toolbar that sometimes gets installed from a checkbox during the installation of other software. They're all free. Some could in the future, become a vector for ads. It seems unlikely that Google would declare their own st
Right until... (Score:2)
Google made a bundle last year, one wonders if they wouldn't like to continue to do that.
[OT] Your sig & stylesheets (Score:2)
Who is forbidding you from disabling those stylesheets in your browser?
Re:[OT] Your sig & stylesheets (Score:2)
No, they should design it properly (I wouldn't be surprised if its on purpose because they hate microsoftware)
Re:[OT] Your sig & stylesheets (Score:2)
If you are on a Mozilla-based browser, look up "userContent.css". Otherwise consult your browser's documentation. Otherwise download the source code of your browser and modify to ignore the parts of
Re:[OT] Your sig & stylesheets (Score:2)
Because you can't disable it on a specific site only.
If you are on a Mozilla-based browser, look up "userContent.css". Otherwise consult your browser's documentation. Otherwise download the source code of your browser and modify to ignore the parts of
Yeah right, like i'm going to learn
You missed my point (Score:2)
The point I failed to get across is that, yes, you can override stylesheets for specific sites! If you use Firefox, Seamonkey or similar, see http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=286
Re:You missed my point (Score:2)
I get what they're doing (Score:5, Interesting)
Google believes click fraud to be the most significant threat to the internet. This makes sense because click fraud is what makes all the malware, adware and virii PROFITABLE. What Google and Sun are doing with stopbadware.org is their answer to that. And it's an answer that is needed badly.
Why? As a very recent veteran of attempting to remove malware, I can tell you that the good side of this war is terribly, horribly disorganized. Let me explain:
If you get a massive infection of various kinds of malware, or if you want to protect yourself against all this stuff, you have to:
1. Protect yourself with a firewall (software example: Zonealarm)
2. Run or have available an antitrojan application (example: Trojan Hunter)
3. Run an antivirus program (commercial examples: Norton or McAfee; freeware example: Grisoft AVG Free)
4. Run several antispyware programs (examples: Spybot, Lavasoft Adaware, Microsoft Antispyware)
5. Use something like merijn.org's HiJackThis to find out what your system is infected with that all of the above cannot detect
6. If you're infected with something difficult like VX2 that can't be detected by ANY of the above, you may also need to hunt down very specific helper scripts and applications to deal with it, or even worse figure out how to remove it manually (which is generally VERY technical and difficult).
So, you have firewall, antitrojan, antivirus, antispyware and detection all covered by entirely different industries, most of which don't have much overlap (antivirus programs still do little against antispyware, for example). In the antispyware category, none of the legit programs can detect everything, so you need to run several of them.
You also have the fact that most of these anti-malware companies are commercial; they need to make money doing what they do, because what they do is very difficult, very technical, and has to be done VERY FAST. You see freeware versions, probably because they can't stand to see people who can't afford all these applications get run into the ground by the malware industry.
It doesn't help at all that you've got hundreds - literally, hundreds - of malware installers masquerading as antispyware, antitrojan and antivirus programs. The antispyware industry has had no choice but to put up www.spywarrior.com just so people can sort out the few good ones from the many bad ones. That site is run by one of the legit companies. That company would obviously much rather have nonprofit, noncommercial oversight declaring who is legit and who isn't - it puts a commercial company in an uncomfortable ethical position to be declaring legitimacy of other companies in its industry. But I don't see that they had any choice; to not do it would be even worse.
It looks like that is what badware.org is intended to be, and what is so badly needed - a nonprofit organization that has no base or funding from within the antimalware industries, to oversee and report on those industries.
Do you know what the process for cleaning an infected computer is right now? You post HiJackThis logs to a variety of different forums (just google "HiJackThis Logfile" for a sample) and people voluntarily, out of the goodness of their hearts, help you with incredibly technical removal procedures (google "VX2 removal" to see what I mean). If you want to look up these removal procedures yourself, you google around on various antispyware and antivirus web sites with various descriptions (often vague or assuming you have their commercial product). It's horribly disorganized, with different antivirus companies calling each virus by a different name. A good example: try and find out how to tell the difference between a Lo
Re:I get what they're doing (Score:2)
Spywarrior.com [spywarrior.com] is also handy if you are looking for airline tickets or Christian singles. Yay for search portals!
"informal efforts" (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the effort isn't backed by a multi-national company, it is informal?
I wouldn't classify [Your Favorite Ad/Spyware Program Here] as an informal effort. Programs like Spy-Bot and Ad-Aware are most definitely not informal. MS's spyware remover, various virus scanners, etc... most definitely not informal efforts.
Maybe the reporter was talking about those various small programs written to specifically root out certain infestations?
Could be Useful (Score:2)
A central source of information on downloadable programs that tells you wether or not a downloadable program is bundled with known spyware. Now, create a firefox extension that checks when you go to download a file, if that filename (and perhaps source domain) and looks it up on the central source and then warns the user that th efile is known to contain spyware. This way, you can be more pro-active in
Once you go Mac, you never go back!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
For all you Microsoft users who are trapped in your ActiveX hell, I feel for you. I have only one thing to say, "Free your OS and your @ss will follow!"
2 cents,
Queen B
Re:Once you go Mac, you never go back!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
MIT's Startup Advisor? (Score:2)
"hmm, google should really have this built in"
Re:Worst name (Score:2, Informative)
Only On Price? (Score:1, Offtopic)
And what keeps Apple alive? Last i heard the ipod cost more then a creative labs version..
Who is buying all these Glocks, instead of cheap kel-tecs?
Designer shoes?
Yep, we americans *only* think of price.
You bought a Glock?? (Score:2)
Oh well.
I never said we americans don't have taste, I simply said that the average layman goes to walmart to get the cheapest shit he can.
I don't shop that way, but most do.
~D
Strange... (Score:2)
I can write 3 fluent languages, as well as relatively staccato and wildly punctuated C++, PHP and a little Python...
My question is... what is THEIR excuse?
~D
Re:Yay, China is in on it... (Score:2)
I am saddened that most Americans that I've met, and heard from, and watched o
Re:Yeah... (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:What is wrong with slashdot these days? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's because just about everyone in the industry has or is about to find a way to make a buck off the horrid situation we're all in due to Microsoft's garbage OS: When people start dumping Microsoft products then the easy money is over and they have to start doing some real work again.
The flip side of this same coin: Some "terrorists" or other group decides that giving a small group of Darkside hackers some serious money is an option and then one day most of our business IT
Re:Yeah, but it still induces cognitive dissonance (Score:2)
Ciao.