EarthLink keeps tabs on spyware

Found on CNet News on Thursday, 15 April 2004
Browse Internet

The Internet service provider on Thursday said it found an average of nearly 28 spyware items on each PC it scanned during the first quarter. The company, in conjunction with Webroot Software, conducted a total of 1.06 million scans through its Spy Audit service. The majority of the items found were relatively harmless, EarthLink said, but some represented serious problems.

"While most spyware is adware-related and relatively benign, it's disturbing that over 300,000 of the more serious system monitors and (Trojan horses) were uncovered. This figure represents how real a threat identity theft or system corruption is for users," Matt Cobb, EarthLink's vice president of core applications, said in a statement.

The Spy Audit service is available to all Internet users, not just EarthLink subscribers.

This proves that people are still either unaware of the threats or simply don't care. The importance of security, virus scanners, firewalls and now spyware scanners has been pointed out many times, but the majority still refuses to do anything. It looks like they don't even want to care as long as they are not really harmed; perhaps we will soon be flooded with more severe problems.