Direct Revenue ExposedThe most hated company on the Internet ( old news - 12:09PM Monday Jul 10 2006) tags: security · software · spywareAs we've tracked through the years, Spyware firm Direct Revenue has been one of the least ethical operations in the business, unleashing the hated "Aurora" spyware on computer users. Business Week is running an interesting expose on the company, that takes an inside glimpse at the operation based on thousands of now public documents made available after the lawsuit by New York AG Eliot Spitzer. "Sifting through a stack of customer complaints in June, 2005, a Direct Revenue employee decided to tally the most frequently used words of aggression: "die" (103 times), "f------" (44), and "kill" (15). Douglas Kee, then Direct Revenue's chief of quality assurance (QA), ribbed colleagues in an e-mail that with all the death threats, it was a "good thing QA sits farthest away from the entrance." Resident security forum participant and spyware researcher Ben Edelmen recently posted a chunk of these internal documents over at his website.
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Iridium
Premium
join:2003-04-02
Los Angeles, CA
 ·DSL EXTREME
| They are laughing now But as soon as some methhead with ADD gets pissed off and storms the building with some ammonium nitrate in a truck, they will take it seriously. I think that is what it will take.
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Start the Revolution, download Opera, »www.opera.com | |
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LinuxJunkie
join:2005-01-19
Cyberspace | Re: They are laughing now I'm a methhead with ADD. Where is their building located? | |
| | | | | | | joebear29
join:2003-07-20
Alabaster, AL
| Whoops The best bit from the Business Week Article:
quote:
The same ambivalence was evident in April, 2005, when Direct Revenue released a concoction known as Aurora. The program clearly labeled ads as coming from the company, a gesture designed to build credibility. But Aurora had powerful features that fought off competing spyware and security programs. The company also raised the number of pop-ups it sent users to as many as 30 a day.
Disaster ensued, as Aurora paralyzed thousands of computers. Matt Oettinger, who ran media operations at Fastclick (VCLK ), an advertising network that bought ads from Direct Revenue, found his home PC afflicted by Aurora, e-mails in court filings show. In June he ordered all Fastclick ads disentangled from Aurora. Branko Krmpotic, the managing director of Technology Investment Capital Corp. (TICC) (TICC ), which had invested $6.7 million in Direct Revenue, also caught the Aurora bug and couldn't kill it, according to e-mails. Eventually, Direct Revenue had to send its customer support director to fix Krmpotic's machine. After receiving complaints about Aurora, Insight Venture, another major investor, told the company to remove Insight's name from the Direct Revenue Web site. Fastclick declined to comment; Krmpotic didn't return calls.
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killthefuker
@comcast.net | The only good purveyor of Spyware is a DEAD SOB ! DEATH to all purveyors of Spyware, aka ADWARE. | |
| | Mike_343
I Need Speed.
join:2001-07-05
Dyer, IN | Re: The only good purveyor of Spyware is a DEAD SOB ! spyware and adware are 2 different things. Don't mix them up. | |
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RadioDoc
Sortofadog
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
Chicago, IL | Re: The only good purveyor of Spyware is a DEAD SOB ! Bah. Facts are such a nuisance when ranting...
Posted at 1:51 PM CDT
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Toolmaster of La Grange. | |
| | | moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by Mike_343  :spyware and adware are 2 different things. Don't mix them up. And the difference is? 
Face it, the line is so blurred that it has become guilt by mere association. Direct Revenue thought it was adware when it was clearly spyware.
Just because they say they aren't spyware doesn't make it so. | |
| markopoleo
join:2003-04-02
Bonne Terre, MO | Die! That cracked me up that Die beat out the f word.
I say that all the time to people who wrong me, just Die! :P | |
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Fatal Vector
join:2005-11-26
| Just in case
Is anyone else haveing a problem with the link on the main page crashing IE when you get to the page after the head banner appears?
I get the "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" error. But only on this link. No other pages cause this. | |
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Fatal Vector
join:2005-11-26
| Re: Just in case
I doubt it. I have the internet zone locked down, patches, etc, etc.
No, it's only this site that does it. The head banner appears, IE seems to stall for a couple of seconds, then the error comes up and I have to restart IE.
Oh well... | |
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