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EarthLink Spyware Scan Turns Up Big Infections

EarthLink Spyware Scan Turns Up Big Infections

ComputerWire Staff
Research out yesterday from EarthLink Inc and Webroot Software Inc shows that there are large numbers of PCs on the internet infected with spyware and Trojan programs that monitor keystrokes and give bad actors access to data.

EarthLink said that in a little over one million PC scans executed by its SpyAudit service, it found 184,559 installations of "system monitor" software, such as keystroke loggers, and 184,919 installations of Trojan programs.

The numbers do not necessarily indicate the same amount of unique PCs infected, but are concerning nevertheless. Trojaned machines are often used in botnets - networks of compromised "zombie" PCs - to carry out denial of service attacks or worse.

EarthLink actually said it found 29.5 million instances of "spyware" over that same one million scans, but 23.8 million of those are attributed to "relatively benign" cookies used by advertising networks to track user behaviour.

The firm also said it found 5.3 million instances of "adware", software which ostensibly serves banner ads and sends data back to third parties without permission. EarthLink uses the free scan service to promote its Spyware Blocker software.

April 18, 2004 at 06:29 PM in Phishing & identity theft | Permalink | TrackBack (6) | Top of page | Blog Home