Spyware becomes increasingly malicious

Tue Jul 13 11:05:23 UTC 2004

> William Warren wrote:
> I second that.  The version I saw required a third
> party registry editor and booting up into the
> recovery console from an XP cd (safe mode didn't cut
> it) just to remove a hidden dll.

Which is why I made the executive decision to re-image instead of trying
to fix, as unfortunately a new variant requires spending more time
learning it, which is not worth it. :-(

> What I don't understand is how exploiting bugs in a 
> program (internet explorer) to install software without
> the consent or even acknowledgement from the owner/user
> is legal behavior.

<me puts the devil's advocate suit on>
There is a grey area between being legal and not being illegal. Compare
to the junk fax issue: it was not legal either (as it spent the
recipient's money without authorization) but it did take special
legislation to make it specifically illegal. If you were to go to court
it would not be a slam dunk by any means; it is going to take more
nuisance that there has been so far for the legal system to do something
about it. Trouble is, it does not prevent you from using the computer,
mostly.

Michel.