Security → Re: Dale Begg-Smith, Adscpm Spyware King wins Olympic Gold

Nice post CJ,

I think this really illustrates the magnitude of the malicious software problem that the world faces today.

It seems even the Australian journalists call him the "Spam man" so his shady practices are pretty well known. But who wants to prosecute a local hero on his own turf?

Even if another country came up with a well defined set of rules that would allow his prosecution, what are the chances he would be extradited? The British hacker that allegedly broke into several defense establishments is still living at home in London.

I think the only way to stop unwanted spyware/adware is to reduce the income from it. I personally don't see how any company benefits from it, but those ads must generate enough revenue for the end customer to pay its advertising fees and come out ahead.

How do we prevent the problems caused by these scum? Maybe something like the shared computer toolkit or mandatory profiles built into new operating systems? Maybe by making it easier to understand and secure web browsers?

I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but anything with the word "mandatory" in its description is going to generate howls of protest about spying conspiracies by the manufacturer and accusations about "forcing me to *blank* with MY machine!!!"

Securing a browser isn't that difficult...We've all done it and I'm sure not all of us were computer genuises when we started (like we are now )....I think the issue really comes down to the *general* public just not being interested or caring enough to worry about these things. Security info is out there, they just don't bother to avail themselves of it, and many probably don't consider this kind of thing a "big" deal or even KNOW their computers are infected.

The trick is in re-education away from the mindset that computer/OS manufacturers promote.....take it out of the box, plug it in and off you go with no worries at all. They've made it way too easy for people to do that, and now we are seeing the fall out.

I think you hit the nail on the head, Terry, on several points. This guy and his brother, have garnered the spotlight and want to be heros all the while sweeping under the rug their shady dealings that made their fortune based on spyware and hijacks, so much despised in the internet community. I'm glad it's come to light and shrugging off the questions that have been raised on his company is something he can't avoid. I'm headed out for the morning, was going to post some relevant links to AdsCPM Network (a.k.a. CPM Media Inc.). That company is running out of Canada FYI.

Here's a couple of their "products" to get started. You can check out more of them in the links under "Others by this group" on the pages linked below

quote:

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Origins

Group
CPM Media
Others By This Group
Second Thought· Free Scratch and Win· NetworkLink Server/Client· NetworkLink Server/Client 1.0· Dope Wars· Dope Wars 2001· Ixis Mail Bomber· 1st Mass Mailer· Second Thought· RVP· Dope Wars 2.2· PacerD· BroadcastPC·

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2nd Thought
»www3.ca.com/securityadvi ··· 53076764
(Alias: 2ndthought Adware, Second Thought, Trojan.Win32.SecondThought.c [VirusLibrary], SecondThought, Trojan.Win32.SecondThought [Kaspersky], Win32/SecondThought.G [NOD32], BKDR_RULEDOR.E, Adware/PortalScan[Panda], Trojan.Win32.SecondThought.a[Kaspersky], Spyware/ClearSearch[Panda], Adware.SecondThought [Symantec], Trojan.Win32.SecondThought.ag,)

Free Scratch and Win
»www3.ca.com/securityadvi ··· 53073903
Vendor Description
From the doc: 'Click on the Scratch Cards button to scratch cards and win cash! A new card will be available every 5 minutes that you're actively surfing.' Also happens to capture keystrokes, update itself in stealth mode, change your homepage, open pop-up ads, tracks your browsing habits.
Alias
Adware/Freescratchandwin [Panda], Trj/Idly.A [Panda],

WebHelper has had this guy in his sights for quite a while now and done some excellent research on their activities (reposting the link to his page)
»www.webhelper4u.com/watc ··· cpm.html

suzi5 's blog on it over a ZDnet:
»blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/?p=772

In a domain environment the administrator can set mandatory user profiles. Every time the user logs in they get the same operating environment, no matter what changes they thought they made. It's taking limited user to the absolute extreme.

For home use it could be branded differently, maybe "Safe User" or "Protected User", or even "Internet User".