Spyware ID theft ring

[unixronin]

eWeek reports discovery of a massive ID theft ring powered by CoolWebSearch.  Yeah, only Windows is vulnerable -- anyone surprised?  ....No?  Didn't think so.  Why people put up with this shit is beyond me, let alone why people who surely KNOW how dangerous it is running around out there with an insecure OS will still just click on this shit and install it with no idea what it's actually doing and in the knowledge that they have no way to find out.  Sometimes I wish one of these crooks would come along and clean out forty million people's bank accounts, just because I can't help but think it'll take something on that scale to get people's attention.

Trend Micro has a free online scanner that will detect and remove CoolWebSearch.  Then again, anyone stupid enough to install a piece of untrusted code like that in this day and age probably isn't reading, or paying any attention to, this anyway.

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Footnote:  I don't particularly wish Microsoft would crash and burn.  I don't particularly wish Windows would dry up and blow away in the wind.  Not only are Unix and the Mac not for everyone, but a monoculture of ANYTHING is a bad.  I just wish Microsoft would start taking security seriously and actually make a real effort to make Windows secure.  I've heard some intimations Longhorn Vista may finally make some progress in that direction, provided that doesn't get dropped before release as well.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I have an answer for you. Don't let her move it.

Make with the clicky and be enlightened. (http://www.symphonyos.com)

Instead of the infinitely customizeable, trim it down to appliance-level. Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, a few other basic apps, and THAT'S ALL SHE GETS. *one* theme. *one* desktop. Of course, the remark about idiot-proof (only an idiot would use it) is true... that's when you upgrade to Ubuntu, but only after she's consented to actually *learn* the OS and made progress doing so.

That's all *most* people at home really need. A simple swiss army knife, and a small one at that. Web, mail, multimedia, and documents. That's all.

It's alpha, so no foisting it off on Martha yet... but testing it out? hellyeah. Help'em make it better, so we don't have to devote our weekends to tech support.