Get totally free music and movies. Download P2P
software and start file sharing.
Click here No scams, no BS. Get BitTorrent, eMule, LimeWire or
Shareaza
Click here
Some other types of spyware (Targetsoft, for example) modify system
files to make themselves harder to remove. (Targetsoft modifies the
"Winsock" Windows Sockets files. The deletion of the spyware-infected
file "inetadpt.dll" will interrupt normal networking usage.) Unlike
users of many other operating systems, a typical Windows user has
administrator privileges on the system, mostly for convenience.
Because of this, any program which the user runs (intentionally or
not) has unrestricted access to the system. Spyware, along with other
threats, has led some Windows users to move to other platforms such as
Linux or Apple Macintosh, which such malware targets far less
frequently.
Advertisements
Many spyware programs reveal themselves visibly by displaying
advertisements. Some programs simply display pop-up ads on a regular
basis; for instance, one every several minutes, or one when the user
opens a new browser window. Others display ads in response to specific
sites that the user visits. Spyware operators present this feature as
desirable to advertisers, who may buy ad placement in pop-ups
displayed when the user visits a particular site. It is also one of
the purposes for which spyware programs gather information on user
behaviour. Hence, pop-up advertisements lead to some of users' most
common complaints about spyware.
Many users complain about irritating or offensive advertisements as
well. As with many banner ads, many spyware advertisements use
animation or flickering banners which are visually distracting and
annoying. Pop-up ads for pornography often display indiscriminately,
including when children use the computer (possibly in violation of
anti-pornography laws).
A further issue in the case of some spyware programs has to do with
the replacement of banner ads on viewed web sites. Spyware that acts
as a web proxy or a Browser Helper Object can replace references to a
site's own advertisements (which fund the site) with advertisements
that instead fund the spyware operator. This cuts into the margins of
advertising-funded Web sites.
"Stealware" and affiliate fraud
A few spyware vendors, notably WhenU and 180 Solutions, have written
what the New York Times has dubbed "stealware", and what spyware-researcher
Ben Edelman terms affiliate fraud, also known as click fraud. These
redirect the payment of affiliate marketing revenues from the
legitimate affiliate to the spyware vendor.
Affiliate marketing networks work by tracking users who follow an
advertisement from an "affiliate" and subsequently purchase something
from the advertised Web site. Online merchants such as eBay and Dell
are among the larger companies which use affiliate marketing. In order
for affiliate marketing to work, the affiliate places a tag such as a
cookie or a session variable on the user's request, which the merchant
associates with any purchases made. The affiliate then receives a
small commission.
Spyware which attacks affiliate networks does so by placing the
spyware operator's affiliate tag on the user's activity?replacing any
other tag, if there is one. This harms just about everyone involved in
the transaction other than the spyware operator. The user is harmed by
having their choices thwarted. A legitimate affiliate is harmed by
having their earned income redirected to the spyware operator.
Affiliate marketing networks are harmed by the degradation of their
reputation. Vendors are harmed by having to pay out affiliate revenues
to an "affiliate" who did not earn them through a contractual
agreement.
Affiliate fraud is a violation of the terms of service of most
affiliate marketing networks. As a result, spyware operators such as
WhenU and 180 Solutions have been terminated from affiliate networks
including LinkShare and ShareSale.
Identity theft and fraud
One case has closely associated spyware with identity theft. In August
2005, researchers from security software firm Sunbelt Software
believed that the makers of the common CoolWebSearch spyware had used
it to transmit "chat sessions, user names, passwords, bank
information, etc.", but it turned out that "it actually is its own
sophisticated criminal little trojan that?s independent of CWS." This
case is currently under investigation by the FBI.
Spyware has principally become associated with identity theft in that
keyloggers are routinely packaged with spyware. John Bambenek, who
researches information security, estimates that identity thieves have
stolen over $24 billion US dollars of account information in the
United States alone.
Spyware-makers may perpetrate another sort of fraud with dialer
program spyware: wire fraud. Dialers cause a computer with a modem to
dial up a long-distance telephone number instead of the usual ISP.
Connecting to these suspicious numbers involves long-distance or
overseas charges which invariably result in massive telephone bills
that the user is liable for. Dialers are somewhat less effective
today, now that fewer Internet users use dialup modems.
