# StopBadware.org...........Say what? HUH?



## MicroBell (Sep 21, 2004)

*Is StopBadware.org Newsworthy?*

Well...I have to admit this sounded like a good Idea...but the usefulness of this site has me baffeled. This site (being toted as the "Big Guns") just released their first report on bad guys and I must say...in my opinion it's totally worthless.

Read Susi's article here...http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/

Read their reply to Susi's article here...http://www.stopbadware.org/blog/articles/2006/03/23/is-stopbadware-org-newsworthy

Notice this section and statement in their defense of the site....



> Take a look at any of our reports, and then google for other reports on the same software, and compare and contrast the style and organization. *We’re trying to make our reports very easy for average folks to understand, concentrating on whether or not you should download it (the big ‘X’) and the reasons why you shouldn’t download it, put in plain English.* As Suzi says, there is already a lot of information about SpyAxe (for example) out there, but it tends to contain lots of technical detail and obscure words like ‘trojan’ that we can’t expect normal people to understand. And much of it is on forums and bulletin boards that are pretty intimidating to the average user, even while being a rich source of information. We hope our reports lower that barrier and make it easier for our non-expert friends and families to get at this vital information.


Close to 98% of adware/spyware is loaded *WITHOUT ANY* consent of input by the user. So what good does displaying a program and telling a user *NOT* to download it actually do...since it's likely some other exploit or trojan installed this without the user knowledge or control in the first place? 

Then..out the 100's of BAD applications to choose from..they chose four *{Kazaa, SpyAxe, Waterfalls 3, and MediaPipe}* that have been written about in depth....lol

*BAFFELING I TELL YOU!!! BAFFELING!!*

Now I know this is the sites first release but according to their future goals and long term plans I can *NOT* see this site being very useful for the average user...as they will likely be posting about badguys that the antispyware forums have been dealing with months ahead of time.


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

MicroBell said:


> Close to 98% of adware/spyware is loaded *WITHOUT ANY* consent of input by the user. So what good does displaying a program and telling a user *NOT* to download it actually do...since it's likely some other exploit or trojan installed this without the user knowledge or control in the first place?


and that's they key here, as you pointed out. I'm all for sites trying to educate users on security etc, so I would welcome anyone adding to that. I think it's early days yet for this lot, so I'd be prepared to give them a bit of leeway. But that depends on what they produce and it's usefullness.

Wait and see is my verdict so far.


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## MicroBell (Sep 21, 2004)

Well....

I thought I would pull this to the top so you can see that this site *"StopBadware.org"* IS totally useless. It's a shame such big companys are part of this site yet the site fails to deliver what was promised. After the orginal post about spyware/adware that has been discussed in depth...these people have done absolutley *NOTHING* in the last 2 months.

With the 100's of bad programs out there....I guess they can't find anything to post about...so the internet must be clean. I would recommend to anyone to NOT use this site or their advise as it's outdated and covers types of malware you wouldn't install anyway. Doing a search on "Google" on your malware issue will have much better results in finding a way to remove it and confirm it is indeed bad.


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