US Files Suit Against Alleged &quot;Spyware&quot; Distributor
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Officials in the US are cracking down on an alleged distributor of Internet &quot;Spyware.&quot; In the first suit of its kind, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims Seismic Entertainment and SmartBot, secretly installs programs on a users&#39; computer without
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The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a legal complaint against two companies that allegedly infected computers with spyware and pop-up advertising, then tried to sell spyware-blocking software.
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The U.S. government has sued a New  Hampshire man in its first attempt to crack down on Internet  "spyware" that seizes control of a user's computer without  permission.
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Company files patent infringement lawsuit and asks trade commission to halt shipment of rival's flash memory into United States.
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The US Federal Trade Commission filed a legal complaint last week against two companies that are believed to have infected computers with spyware and pop-up advertising and then attempted to sell their ownersâ anti-spyware software.
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Early access to profits A firm that allegedly hacked into corporate servers to access news releases early has been sued by US market regulators.â¦
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The Federal Trade Commission has asked a US District Court to shut down a computer spyware operation. The FTC said Tuesday the operation hijacks computers, secretly changes their
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Companies are accused of infecting PCs, and then selling spyware-blocking software.
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(InfoWorld) - An operation that allegedly installed illegal spyware on computers will give more than US$2 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint. The FTC has obtained a settlement order against Enternet Media Inc., Conspy & Co. Inc., Lida Rohbani, Nima Hakimi and Baback Hakimi, all based in California, the agency announced Wednesday. The defendants distributed software called Search Miracle, Miracle Search, EM Toolbar, EliteBar and Elite Toolbar, the FTC said. In an order issued by Judge Christine Snyder of the U.S District Court for Central California, the defendants are prohibited from interfering with computer use, such as distributing software code that tracks Internet activity, changes browser settings and inserts new advertising toolbars onto browsers. The defendants also are permanently prohibited from making misleading representations regarding the performance, features, and cost, of any software, including misrepresenting that the code is an Internet browser upgrade or other computer security software, music, song, lyric or cell phone ring tone. The Web sites of the defendants and their affiliates caused installation boxes to pop up on consumersâ computer screens, the FTC said in its complaint. In one variation of the scheme, the boxes offered a variety of freeware, including music files, cell phone ring tones, photographs, wallpaper and song lyrics. In another, the boxes warned that consumersâ Internet browsers were defective, and offered free browser upgrades or security patches. Users who downloaded the supposed freeware or security upgrades did not receive what they were promised, Instead, their computers were infected with spyware that interfered with their computers and was difficult to uninstall, the FTC said. The defendants' software tracked Internet activity, changed home-page settings and inserted a large frame onto browser windows that displayed advertisements, the FTC said. At the FTCâs request, the court froze the operationâs assets last fall and ordered it shut down. The settlement requires the defendants to give up just over $2 million of their spyware-related profits and includes a suspended judgment of $8.5 million. The FTC brought the case with assistance from Microsoft Corp., Webroot Software Inc. and Google Inc., the agency said.
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Lawsuits against 23 companies in California and Florida allege distribution of counterfeit software.
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(InfoWorld) - Symantec Corp. has filed suit against an alleged software piracy ring, that has been in operation in North America since late 2003, the software vendor claims. The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeks more than US$15 million in damages from a network of U.S. and Canadian businesses that are alleged to have sold counterfeit versions of Symantec's products, including Norton AntiVirus, pcAnywhere and Veritas Backup Exec. These companies and their affiliates run a global counterfeit organization that focuses on the U.S. and Canada, Symantec said. The businesses, which operated under eight different names, including Sili Inc., Advanced Sales Productivity Solutions Inc. and GT Micro, used spam and online advertising to offer Symantec's software at cut-rate prices, said Cris Paden, a Symantec spokesman. Customers who paid for the software would then be sent disks with Symantec's logo, wrapped in plain white sleeves. The disks, which came without documentation, would not install or work properly and could also include malicious software that would then be used to steal sensitive information from the purchaser's computer, Paden said. Symantec began investigating the matter in early 2004, when it started receiving complaints from customers who had bought the bad software, Paden added. "The people who bought these disks thinking they were from Symantec would come to our customer service," he said. One of the Sili Web sites named in Symantec's complaint, Sle-business.com, http://www.sle-business.com/Product%20List.htm Norton AntiVirus 2006. That product typically sells for about $20. Sle-business.com's Web site also offers software from McAfee Inc., Intuit Inc., Corel Corp. and Webroot Software Inc., among others. Sili representatives could not be reached immediately for comment. Symantec has worked with police to seize more than 100,000 copies of counterfeit disks, but Paden did not know if criminal charges would be forthcoming in the case. "We are working with law enforcement," he said. "I can't tell you who because if I did that would tip our hands to the extent of our investigation." Like many other vendors, Symantec has become more aggressive in its fight against unauthorized copying. In 2002, Symantec was losing about $500 million per year to software piracy, but it has now reduced those losses to less than $50 million per year, he said. Customers who are worried that they may be buying phony software online should make sure they are actually giving their credit-card information over a secure Web site, Paden said. That means that when they are asked to enter a credit-card number, the Web address should begin with https://, and there should be a locked padlock displayed near the address to indicate that the browser is visiting a secure site. "That's the smoking gun as to whether you're dealing with a legitimate outfit or not," Paden said. "99 percent of the time these guys don't use this."ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday filed the first case in the country against software companies accused of infecting computers with intrusive &quot;spyware
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The FTC has taken legal action in an effort to shut down Seismic Entertainment Productions and SmartBot.Net -- two companies that have become notorious as distributors of spyware.
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(InfoWorld) - The sellers of the Spyware Slayer antispyware program have agreed to pay US$300,000 in fines to settle charges that they violated Washington State spyware and consumer protection laws. Both the charges and the settlement were filed Wednesday in King County Superior Court in Seattle, said Washington State Assistant Attorney General Katherine Tassi. Two companies, both controlled by the same owners, were named in the settlement, she said: High Falls Media LLC, of Hilton, New York, and Roc Telecommunications LLC, of Rochester, New York. Company associates Thomas Tortora, Mark Libutti and Brian Einhaus, all of New York, were also named as defendants. They could not be reached immediately for comment, and the freepcscan.com Web site used to market Spyware Slayer was no longer active on Wednesday. High Falls promoted Spyware Slayer with false pop-up ads warning victims that their computer was infected with spyware, Tassi said. If the victim tried to leave the site, another pop-up cautioned, "if you leave now, damage could be done by harmful worms, viruses, adware, spyware, malware or hacker code." These ads "were essentially startling consumers into believing that they had spyware on their computer," Tassi said. "They had a pop-up that said 'we have detected a 99 percent chance that you have spyware on your computer,' and this was just an advertisement. They had not done anything to detect anything." This type of inducement is illegal under Washington's Computer Spyware Act, but has become an "all too common mode of marketing security software," Tassi said. "We do see this as an increasing trend: the exploiting of consumer fears over spyware and adware as a way of marketing software products." Las week, Washington's attorney general announced a similar settlement with a New York man who used pop-up ads designed to look like Internet Explorer alerts. He was marketing a program called QuikShield Security, she said. Roc Telecommunications ran a number of music download sites, including 24/7 Downloads, Free Download Club, and MP3s Unlimited, which also engaged in deceptive marketing practices, Tassi said. The defendants have not admitted any wrongdoing under the agreement and will have the bulk of their $300,000 fine suspended, provided that they comply with the terms of the agreement and no longer misrepresent what they are selling. "They pay $25,000 of that and then the remaining portion hangs over their head as an incentive to comply with the injunctive provisions," Tassi said. The defendants must also pay $30,000 in legal fees and provide refunds to Washington state residents who purchased their products.
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The man responsible for selling portions of Microsoft&#39;s (Quote, Chart) Windows NT and 2000 source code earlier this year was charged with one count of unlawfully distributing a trade secret by the US Attorney&#39;s Office in Manhattan Tuesday.
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This is pretty interesting, seems as though Microsoft has acquired an anti-spyware company noone&#39;s ever heard of. I know spyware and adware removal software is big business now but I&#39;ve never heard of Giant Company Software Inc.
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Symantec Corp. has filed suit against an alleged software piracy ring, that has been in operation in North America since late 2003, the software vendor claims.