11.11.05
Spyware Company Shut Down by FTC
A small group of individuals doing business under multiple company names has been disseminating spyware by offering consumers free music files, browser upgrades, and ring tones. Embedded in the free programs, however, were small trojans that downloaded dangerous spyware onto each target computer. In other instances, the group also disseminated its malware by causing a program to be installed in consumers’ computers, which would flash warnings about their computer’s security and spyware. Ironically, the warning itself was in fact spyware, and when concerned consumers would click on the warning, they would download spyware into their systems.
One of the group’s products was called Elitebar, a deceptive type of adware that propagates through social engineering methods, Java scripting errors and dialog boxes.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, at the request of the FTC, shut down the operation as of November 10, 2005. The courts have frozen the organization’s assets, and the FTC will ask that the deceptive practices be barred permanently. The agency claims that the practices are unfair, deceptive, and violate the FTC Act.
According to the FTC complaint, the defendants created software code that tracked the behavior of Internet users, hijacked home page settings, inserted toolbars and advertising side-frames, and generated pop-up ads. The complaint further stated that the malware often interfered with proper functioning of targeted computers.
The case was made with the assistance of Microsoft Corporation, Webroot Software, and Google Inc. The FTC recommends that consumers take steps to address the spyware risk, including setting browser security to detect unauthorized downloads, using anti-virus software and a firewall, downloading free software only from trusted sites, avoiding clicking on links inside pop-up windows or from spam links claiming to offer anti-spyware software, and to consider deploying a legitimate anti-spyware software solution from a trusted company. In addition to deploying anti-spyware programs, consumers and companies can combat spyware by avoiding use of peer-to-peer sites and instant messaging, which are often conduits of spyware.
The FTC action against the group reflects only a small portion of the growing spyware problem. EarthLink reports that the average PC has 28 spyware programs; a Dell report shows that 12 percent of tech support calls were due to the presence of spyware. In most cases, users do not realize they are downloading spyware. It is often downloaded into the computer automatically in the form of a trojan, along with some sort of nominally useful free program. Spyware can also be launched when users click on email attachments or share files through peer-to-peer networks. In can also take the form of “active code” and hidden inside a Web page, so that it launches automatically when the page is viewed. Because of the latter variation, many companies have taken the step of deploying URL filtering, which blocks many sites that are known to host spyware.