Half of those crimes stemmed from spyware, software that surreptitiously tracks users online or causes ads to pop up when the consumer is online. Users can protect their financial data by using updated software that protects against spyware and...
But unlike zombie programs, they are mainly designed to report users' browsing habits and deliver pop-up ads. Incidents involving the malicious code, also known as "bot" code, reached 13,000 from April through June, according to a report from...
Sunner said while spyware, or more accurately adware, was little more than an annoying way to launch pop-ups at the earliest point of that timeframe, the financial incentives which encourage data and identity theft mean it matured to thoroughly...
Some of it is an irritant but some can aid in identity theft. Users are increasingly losing ownership of their PCs with a growing amount of spyware and malicious applications finding their way on to computers in homes and the workplace.
Costs related to identity theft, for example, fall largely back onto the consumer, he added, even if it did start with a data breach at an enterprise. Viruses, laptop theft and insider abuse of net access are still the most reported threats but all...
In 2004 it bought Giant Software - a maker of anti-spyware, anti-pop-up and anti-spam tools, announcing soon after that this software would be free to all licensed Windows users. Its intent appears to be to annoy the user by bombarding them with...