Earthlink, Webroot Spot Spyware All Over

Some disturbing news came out in a TechWeb article that Internet service provider EarthLink and Webroot, a message security software maker, scanned over 420,000 PCs during April, and found nearly 134,000 Trojans or systems monitors.

"So far this year, the SpyAudit has detected over 500,000 Trojans and system monitors out of the roughly 1.5 million machines scanned. The revised numbers also showed a slight decrease in the average number of pieces of spyware per system from March to April. Scans done in April detected 26.9 spyware programs or components per machine, while March's scans found 29.9 on average. The year-to-date average is 27.5 pieces per system."

EarthLink-Webroot definition of spyware: Any application or software that's placed on the user's machine without his or her authorization, said an EarthLink spokesman, including adware, adware cookies -- typically planted to track your surfing habits for marketing and advertising purposes -- Trojans, and system monitors. The best-known monitors are 'key loggers,' software that traps every keystroke, including usernames, passwords, and critical financial information like credit card numbers, then passes them along to hackers.

"Spyware has been attracting attention primarily because of the risk of identity theft and subsequent online fraud. Earlier this week, Gartner released a report that estimated total checking account fraud -- much of it due to a combination of spyware and phishing attacks -- took cost American banks and consumers $2.4 billion in the last 12 months."