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Exclude MIRC. »
« Yet another cybersecurity chief steps down  
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edbott

join:2005-01-02
Scottsdale, AZ

reply to eburger68
Re: WMP Adware: A Case Study in Deception

I should have put "honest" in quotes. How many more ways do I have to say these people are sleazy scumbags?

The one license agreement says it will pop up porn ads on my computer. The other says it will do a whole paragraph's worth of awful things, including installing more spyware. I'm not sure which program is doing the installation of the 31 extras, because I didn't actually allow my test machine to be taken over.

And the fact that it was in the license agreement doesn't make it right or acceptable or "honest." My point is that someone who is suspicious will find plenty of reasons not to click Install; someone who is naive may well be fooled by the social engineering techniques.

eburger68
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-28

Ed:

You wrote:

said by edbott See Profile:

The one license agreement says it will pop up porn ads on my computer. The other says it will do a whole paragraph's worth of awful things, including installing more spyware. I'm not sure which program is doing the installation of the 31 extras, because I didn't actually allow my test machine to be taken over.
It was the first one that installed most of the software in my testing, and that matches what Ben found as well.

The second one did install a few things, but not much beyond what was already there. I'm guessing that much of what it could have and would have installed independently was already installed by the time I clicked through the iDownload.com installation prompt.

Eric L. Howes
Forums » Up and Running » Security » SecurityExclude MIRC. »
« Yet another cybersecurity chief steps down  


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