Spyware Rulemaking Muddled in a Gray Area
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In the digital age, there are few black-and-white rules. Rather, we live in an era of gray when it comes to technology and the law.  A federal case that was recently dismissed before it reached trial is the latest example.
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A question of TRUSTe Sites handed the TRUSTe seal of approval are twice as likely to host malware or engage in spamming as those not endorsed by any security certificate, according to a study by spyware researcher Ben Edelman.â¦
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Blog: A new Senate bill is likely to vex Internet companies and advertisers, who have been warning for years that supposedly "anti-spyware" proposals could impose problematic regulations on legitimate businesses.
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Organizations and law enforcement agencies fighting spyware are making progress, but new tools in an antispyware bill stalled in the U.S. Congress could improve the efforts, a member of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Monday.One of the spyware bills passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year, the Spy Act, would give the FTC authority to impose civil fines on companies that distribute spyware to consumers&#39; computers. The bill, along with the Internet Spyware Prevention (or I-SPY) Act, have&#160;stalled in the Senate&#160;since passing the House in May and June.The FTC has the authority to collect profits from spyware operations and collect money for consumer redress, but it lacks the authority to impose other fines, as it does when going after spammers, said Commissioner Jon Leibowitz, speaking at a spyware forum in Washington, D.C.Assigning a dollar figure to consumer harm is tricky in many spyware cases, especially when the spyware delivers pop-up advertisements to computers, Leibowitz said. It&#39;s sometimes difficult to get courts to assign large consumer damages to pop-up cases, he said.In some cases, spyware damages are assessed by judges &quot;who don&#39;t even use computers,&quot; said Dave Koehler, with the FTC&#39;s Bureau of Consumer Protection.The Spy Act would allow the FTC to fine spyware vendors up to $3 million for hijacking computers, delivering unwanted adware, and other violations, and $1 million for collecting personal data without permission, in addition to going after the vendor&#39;s profits and seeking consumer redress.Additional authority to impose civil fines would give the FTC &quot;an enormous deterrent,&quot; Leibowitz said.&quot;Right now, companies know that the worst they can do is lose their profits,&quot; he added. &quot;They&#39;re not going to get fined on top of that.&quot;The FTC has brought several spyware actions against companies. In February, the agency settled&#160;a case against adware distributor DirectRevenue. In that case, DirectRevenue settled for $1.5 million, based on its profits, but the founders of the company had received more than $20 million in venture-capital funding, Leibowitz said.While participants in the spyware forum said there continue to be many challenges, including a growing trend of foreign spyware vendors, the cost of spyware to U.S. consumers seems to be falling. Consumer Reports estimated that spyware cost U.S. consumers $2.6 billion in 2006, but only $1.7 billion in 2007, noted Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a supporter of StopBadware.org, a consumer-protection effort aimed at spyware and other malicious code.The drop in the cost of spyware can be attributed to a number of factors, Schwartz said. Antispyware technology is getting better, the FTC has taken action against spyware vendors, and StopBadware.org has distributed a&#160;list of malicious Web sites, he said. In addition, some states have taken action against spyware, and cybersecurity groups&#39; public education programs seem to be working, he said.But Ron Teixeira, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), noted that consumers may know more about spyware, but they aren&#39;t always acting on their knowledge. A survey released by the NCSA and McAfee earlier this month found 78 percent of respondents&#39; computers didn&#39;t have all three of what the NCSA calls the &quot;core protection&quot; software: anti-virus, antispyware, and firewall.&quot;We&#39;re not seeing a huge increase in the actual behavior change,&quot; he said.
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Internet Security Systems' intrusion prevention software on Crossbeam Systems security switches.
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The bureau isn't rushing to fill in the blanks regarding its use of the "computer and internet protocol address verifier" spyware tool.
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Spyware, an amorphous class of software that mostly gets onto computers without their usersâ knowledge, has become epidemic in the past year as people spend more time online and spyware developers get more aggressive.
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Researchers' suggestions of using wormlike software to distribute patches draws security concerns.
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If you use a computer, you should be thankful that Congress is aiming to outlaw the scourge known as spyware. But if you think making spyware illegal will end the pop-up ads, hijacked browsers and gridlocked
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Most users think their computer is safe from adware and spyware--but they're wrong.
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Unpatched Windows machines are vulnerable to latest adware attack
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Restrictive hardware and convoluted rights management crimp consumer choices.
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Homes computers, lacking firewalls and up-to-date virus protection, are crawling with spyware.
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Some experts doubt whether the California law will have much impact on illegal spyware activity. By George V. Hulme. A new California law aimed at curbing spyware, software applications that surreptitiously
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Companies and others that secretly install "spyware" programs on people's computers to quietly monitor their Internet activities would face hefty federal fines under a bill the House passed Tuesday.    The most egregious behaviors ascribed to the category of such software - secretly recording a person's computer keystrokes or mouse clicks - are already illegal under U.S...
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Measures to curb the use of "spyware" -- the computer programs that surreptitiously track people's online movements -- are steamrolling their way through Congress and a combined proposal could reach the President's desk before lawmakers break for the November election.
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roundup Free-roaming source code breeds new Netsky pest. Also: From IE to Opera, browsers are a likely prey.