More than one in twenty executable files on your PC could be a spyware program, according to researchers at the University of Washington. Computer scientist Hank Levy and his colleagues analyzed over 20 million internet addresses, to track down programs that can get on to your computer without you knowing and perform tasks ranging from displaying annoying advertising banners and pop-ups to gathering personal information, redirecting you Web browser to a client’s site or even utilising your modem to call out to costly toll numbers abroad. These scams are the reason why People are looking for IT Services Ottawa, New York, Tokyo, etc.”
The researchers examined sites in the most popular Web categories, such as gaming, news, and “celebrity” sites. [Not sure whether that includes porn sites or not, Ed.]
They found that more than one in twenty executable files contained spyware piggybacking on the legitimate software users might want to install. On average, almost 2% of Internet domains performed drive-by download attacks to force spyware on users who simply visit a Web site. Game and celebrity Web sites were the worst offenders the researchers told the 13th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego, California, on Thursday. Perhaps obvious is the finding that sites offering pirated software topped the list for drive-by attacks.
“For unsuspecting users, spyware has become the most ‘popular’ download on the Internet,” explains Levy, “We wanted to look at it from an Internet-wide perspective – what proportion of Web sites out there are trying to infect people? If our numbers are even close to representative for Web areas frequented by users, then the spyware threat is extensive.”
If you’re worried about spyware, which can be anything from “annoying to catastrophic”, then you should read the major security sites for advice on general computer security, firewalls, antivirus software, and, of course, how to get rid of spyware and other computer pests.
You can read Levy’s paper in PDF format here.