Subversion In The Spyware Wars

Unfortunately, when you're known as a techie, you get many calls from friends (what we commonly refer to as PEBKACs - Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair) begging for help with their recalcitrant PCs. And despite innumerable lectures to them on layered defenses, I often find myself sitting in front of PCs that have outdated or no anti-virus, infested with every manner of spyware and crapware out there.

Usually, the first step in cleaning out their machines (if they're indeed salvageable) is to run AdAware and/or Spybot, both of which have been generously released by their owners to assist in the ongoing war against crapware. Lately, I've found AdAware to be somewhat better at the initial scans than Spybot, as it seemed to pick up more problems than the latter, but something popped up a couple of days ago that's made AdAware suspect. This report at Spyware Warrior notes that AdAware no longer considers WhenU, a known adware (I'll refrain from calling a spade a spade in this case) "provider" as spyware. The implications are interesting.

Yahoo previously inked some forms of alliance with both WhenU and Claria, another known adware provider, both of which will flood your PC with unwanted ads that are incredibly ill-targeted. This resulted in the Yahoo Toolbar conveniently ignoring the adware as a threat to a PC, and provided a tacit endorsement of adware. The fact that Lavasoft, as a very trusted and fairly ubiquitous presence in the anti-crapware field has succumbed to the lure of lucre from the adware providers underscores not only the need for layered defenses, but even for a cross-check at the same level. Going with both AdAware and Spybot is no longer enough, as I've found that using additional tools such as SpySubtract and BOClean are indicated to guard against the more serious infections (and even those may not be enough).

Surprisingly enough, I've got to actually give kudos to Microsoft as they've announced that their anti-spyware solution will be free for end users. Assuming they're agile enough to deal with an evolving threat, it might actually be a workable solution. Indeed, MS AntiSpyware Beta is based on the legacy Giant Anti-Spyware, which was about the best of the lot of the scanners (although it only picked up on 70% of infections according to some studies). Being the proverbial 500 lb. gorilla, they're far less likely to succumb to the lure of ad dollars as some of the smaller firms, however, one can never say what "strategic alliances" may rear their ugly heads in the future.

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