Michael Gracie 

Sears Holdings was busted for using sophisticated spyware on some of its e-commerce sites. Now Bruce Schneier wonders if it is criminal behavior. At the least, the concept of altering your privacy policy based on whether some desktop software is present is worthy of one gigantic class action lawsuit. How the surreptitiously installed software actually [...]

Bringing new meaning to spyware.

It is the last day of 2006. What better time for predictions… From the experts: The security threats that will bind us in 2007 If you are more inclined to make (or lose) money next year, here’s “the take” from the Washington Post Spamroll says: Spam will not end in late January (and Bill Gates [...]

Zango, the spyware company formerly known as 180Solutions (you know, the company that is in a perpetual turnaround), was lucky enough to have the class action lawsuit against them dismissed. Lucky. Just yesterday, the FTC announced they had just bagged another spyware company, forcing a $2MM fine down their throats. Sooner or later, Zango’s (or [...]

Someday we’ll have interactive, electronic paper, and when your wife or girlfriend isn’t looking you’ll be able to steal her Victoria’s Secret catalog and catch a few jollies. The only risk will be getting caught (if you consider that a risk). Until then, it’s just a computer and spyware thing you have to worry about.

I haven’t heard if anyone figured out whether social networking sites like MySpace were using spyware to supplement their growth. No matter – outsiders are, though embedded videos in fake profiles. I wonder how many of MySpace’s profiles are being used for this kind of stuff – I suspect quite a few. Nevertheless, those astrophysics [...]

BusinessWeek, in cooperation with MSNBC, is running a comprehensive story on DirectRevenue – you know, the spyware company that infects its own investors. Worth a read, if you have a decent amount of time (it’s fairly long).

A while back, someone noted that Steve Ballmer had a bit of trouble getting bugs off a Windows machine. Actually, it wasn’t a bit of trouble – it turned out a struggle. No matter. The investors in spyware company DirectRevenue had the same problem. You reap what you sow.

So I have been lazy lately – or is that busy – I can’t tell which. First report – Sophos’s Top Ten malware threats for April 2006; second up – MXLogic’s latest on email worms and viruses. The Spamroll summary – Netsky rules, and email worms need less interesting names. Needless to say, these threat [...]

Webroot recently reported a dramatic rise in spyware incidents, most of it targeting financial data. While the company’s report may be biased, the fact that spyware has roots in commercial enterprised (i.e. adware) means there are more people working on the stuff. The fact that viruses are generally individual endeavors means they will take a [...]