Antispyware groups: Legislation still needed
452640
Antispyware groups, concerned that lax consumer practices are offsetting tech gains in antispyware technology, are calling on Congress to pass laws penalizing the companies that resort to distributing the controversial programs.
695543
The House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday that further penalizes the use of spyware, but leaves out requirements for compliance by software developers.
621621
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.
498095
Plenty of laws exist to prosecute online identity thieves and fraudsters, and also to co-opt ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and online auction sites into the fight against fraud, but enforcement is lacking across the board, according to security experts.
144919
Internet cafes that fail to enforce the strict rules governing their use are being shut down by the government. Also: Companies worry that the spyware buck will stop with them & hellip;.  High-tech outsourcing to India continues  & hellip;. and more.
356771
While corporations are monitoring ports and using advanced security tools to fend off infection and attack, home users -- who have less technical sophistication -- are left more susceptible, sometimes
196278
Windows users will have another tool for protecting their PCs.
596425
Businesses may be spending millions on expensive security technologies aimed at thwarting data leakage and compliance violations, but many companies are still failing to sufficiently address access controls for protected information and IT systems.
716663
Networked multifunction devices share PC vulnerabilities to worms, hackers.
687945
The Golden State passes a law aimed at cracking down on what some feel is the internet's next scourge -- spyware. But critics say it's only a partial step toward protecting consumers.
360447
The irony of the German government floating a proposal to deploy spyware to infect the computers of suspected criminals isn't lost on the security community, still furious over the "anti-hacking" law that has undermined legitimate security research in that country.
459683
Though communications protections exist, the law is fuzzy regarding internet and e-mail activity. Watch out for the legalization of digital mind readers tracing internet users' thoughts and interests, and trampling privacy rights in the process.
494732
California's pioneering law aimed at cracking down on spyware -- signed this week to curb the software that hides on computers and secretly follows users around the Web -- is only a partial step toward protecting consumers, critics said on Friday.
698776
Two bills designed to curb the proliferation of Internet "spyware" took another step toward law this week with overwhelming approval from the House of Representatives, but supporters said they face a tough race against the clock to get Senate approval before Congress disperses for the November elections.
56532
People have long been the weakest link when it comes to protecting computers. The same applies to mobile phones, a security expert says.
405976
Letters: Going deeper on the question of security and operating systems.
634646
(InfoWorld) - Hackers may want to avoid Germany, after the approval of a law that makes their activity a punishable crime. The legislation, which theÂ German government proposedÂ earlier last year and approved Friday with no changes, aims to crack down on the sharp rise in computer attacks in the public and private sectors. Although Germany already has a comprehensive penal law against attacks on IT systems, the new legislation looks to close any remaining loopholes. It defines hacking as penetrating a computer security system and gaining access to secure data, without necessarily stealing data. Offenders are defined as any individual or group that intentionally creates, spreads or purchases hacker tools designed for illegal purposes. They could face up to 10 years in prison for major offenses. Other punishable cybercrimes include DOS (denial-of-service) attacks and computer sabotage attacks on individuals, which would extend the existing law that limited sabotage to businesses and public authorities. The new law, however, has drawn criticism by several groups, including the hacker club Chaos Computer Club e.V., which points to the work of "good" hackers, also known as "white hats," who work for security companies. These computer experts, the club argues, could be restricted in their ability to help software makers develop secure products and businesses to deploy them. That opinion is shared by some hackers as well. In an e-mail, a hacker, known by the pseudonym van Hauser, wrote that if hackers are unable to share their tools with the public, white hats will not be able to get them and use them internally for testing or external security consultants won't be able to do security testing. "It's a win-lose law in favor for the bad guys," he wrote. Chaos Computer Club also warns that the law could make it much easier for the German government to allow law enforcement officials to install spyware on computers of suspected criminals without their knowledge. The club is concerned about the ability of consumers and businesses to protect their systems from government spyware without support from the hacker community. In February, the country's High Court handed down a landmark decisionÂ banning police from installing spyware, delivering a blow to the plans of the German Interior Minister Wolfgang SchÃ¤uble to give the Federal Criminal Police Office greater power to monitor terrorists and other criminals online, and peek inside their computers. But SchÃ¤uble is seeking ways ever since to have the court revise its decision. Â