I wonder how many Kazaa users are in the mix
EarthLink finds rampant spyware, trojans
Paper identifies 300,000 programs capable of stealing personal information
By Paul Roberts, IDG News Service April 15, 2004
Internet service provider EarthLink and Webroot Software released a report on Thursday that said an average of almost 28 spyware programs are running on each computer. More serious, Trojan horse or system monitoring programs were found on more than 30 percent of all systems scanned, raising fears of identity theft.
The report presents the results of scans of over one million Internet-connected computers. Many of the 29 million spyware programs that were found were harmless "adware" programs that display advertising banners or track Web surfing behaviors. However, the companies also found more than 300,000 instances of programs that are capable of stealing personal information or providing unauthorized access to computers, the companies said.
Spyware is a generic term that describes a wide range of programs that track user behavior on a computer, often for marketing purposes. The programs are sometimes bundled with other software, such as peer to peer (P-to-P) file sharing programs, and installed legally on users' systems. However, once installed, they run surreptitiously in the background and can be difficult to detect and remove.
The report covers the first three months of 2004 and compiles information from scans conducted by both EarthLink and Webroot. It is the first of what will be regular updates that track the prevalence of spyware, the companies said.
