# Anti-Spyware Products : Poor Defenders



## mimo2005 (Oct 2, 2004)

John Wells writes "In the December, 2004 issue of PC World, the author of an article titled Poor Defenders   concludes that most commercial anti-spyware software is ineffective. In tests using a fresh install of XP and 6 typical spyware infections the commercial software failed to stack up against freeware competitor Spybot Search and Destroy. Four out of seven commercial products failed to remove any of the infections. One product even installed 57 spyware files itself! Conclusion: Use freeware products like Spybot and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal."


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## joat1 (Sep 23, 2004)

Yep. I read that article, too. It also helps not to use IE as well... :grin:


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## mimo2005 (Oct 2, 2004)

*SpyWare: Combating the New Menace Leads to Explosive New Market Opportunities*

SpyWare: Combating the New Menace Leads to Explosive New Market Opportunities

01 Dec 2004


FRAMINGHAM, Mass., December 1, 2004 – From a minor annoyance for home-PC users to a major plight on enterprise environments around the world, SpyWare (also known as AdWare, MalWare, ScumWare, and a host of other sordid names) is infecting millions of computers with multiple purposes: stealing personal information, enabling identity theft, tracking users' online activity, and selling the information back to anyone willing to pay. According to new research from IDC, the need to identify and eradicate these parasitic programs will drive *AntiSpyWare software revenues from $12 million in 2003 to $305 million in 2008.*
Although not always malicious in nature, SpyWare still causes significant damage to legitimate software, network performance, and employee productivity. Moreover, it crosses the boundary between security and system management by deluging Help Desks with a siege of employee complaints about pop-up advertisements, applications failures, and poor PC performance. 

At worst, SpyWare's ability to track keystrokes, scan hard drives, and change system and registry settings is a tremendous personal and enterprise security threat. These activities can lead to identity theft, data corruption, and even theft of company trade secrets. "Today, more malicious SpyWare can easily infiltrate corporate firewalls," said Brian Burke, research manager, Security Products at IDC. "These programs make their way into the corporate Intranet under the guise of less-threatening network traffic and, once in, they can wreak havoc."

Key findings from IDC's study of the SpyWare market include the following: 

SpyWare is often bundled with legitimate programs, allowing it to easily pass through firewalls uncontested 

A recent IDC survey of over 600 organizations listed SpyWare as the fourth-greatest threat to a company's enterprise network security 

IDC estimates that 67% of all computers (mostly consumer) have some form of SpyWare 

Rising SpyWare threats and increasing demand for protection have forced established security vendors to build, buy, or partner with standalone antiSpyWare vendors


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