The spyware community has polarized, a panel of security experts said Thursday at a Washington workshop hosted by the Anti-Spyware Coalition. Adware distributors, under pressure from the Federal Trade Commission and anti-spyware technology, have mostly quit the business or are going legit. But the really bad players are getting worse, producing more stealthy and sophisticated malware.
“Nuisance adware is mostly dead,” said FTC Commissioner Jonathan Leibowitz.
Venture capital funding of companies that are paid to deliver annoying pop-up ads to your Web browser is largely a thing of the past, Leibowitz said. He pointed to several successful civil actions against major distributors who have since gone out of business or gone straight.
And reports of spyware infections have gone down, said Jeffrey Fox, technology editor for Consumer Reports. According to annual surveys, infections have gone from one in four respondents in 2004 to one in 11 in 2007. In the same time, the estimated cost of spyware has dropped from $3.5 billion a year to $1.7 billion.
But, to quote Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, “there is a big difference between mostly dead and completely dead.”
While adware and spyware are less visible, Trojans delivering malware to computers are more stealthy, sophisticated, and harder to detect and remove.
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