89% have spyware infection

[Larwee]

Webroot says that 89% of consumer computers are infected with spyware/adware. The average infected computer has 30 pieces of spyware/adware.

Naturally 5 Star members take all types of precautions and wouldn't have a problem close to being this large, would you?

But seriously, some 5 Star members are going to be infected with spyware, but I would expect the rate to be lower than the general public.

The 89% infection is the highest it has been since near the end of 2004. That is interesting because some "experts" have said that infection rates were dropping and would continue to drop and become almost extinct.

It doesn't look as if spyware is very anxious to join the dinosaur on the extinction list. But businesses are doing a better job than consumers, with anti-spyware protection being an important reason. However according to Webroot, approximately 30% of businesses do not have anti-spyware protection.

This link is to an article with more details; which also contains a link to the Webroot report http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/192200016

[Larwee]

Here is an article which contains some rather interesting additional information in relation to the growth of spyware infection.

The spyware information comes from a report by Webroot, which studies more than 6 million home users and more than 3 million business users.

Spyware creators are using a wider range of methods to do their dirty work. They are piggybacking on other more vicious types of programs. Video clips are also being used.

Social networking sites such as MySpace are now becoming a very serious source of spyware. Many people have multiple profiles, and links on their sites that take you to sites that do the dirty work.

Webroot has found approximately 527,000 malicious Web sites, which is about 100,000 more than there were a year ago.

One method using video clips has a trojan named Zlob to deliver the dirty works to users, while pretending to be a video-decoder program.

When you click on a video you want to watch, you receive an error message and a link to install the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player. You are then redirected to a download site that gives you the nasty program.

Here is a link to the article with more details http://www.toptechnews.com/news/Spyw...d=10000B7LU1TG