Even Bill Gates Gets Spyware
from the if-he-can't-figure-out-how-to-protect-himself... dept
For all those people who are complaining about how difficult it is to avoid spyware and adware on a Windows machine, take comfort (or be very, very afraid) in the knowledge that Bill Gates knows the same pain. In announcing that Microsoft would offer an anti-spyware utility of their own creation, Gates said: "I have had malware, (adware), that crap" on his home machines. Anyone want to suggest BillG start using Firefox to protect himself?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I think you got spyware confused with something el
"Anyone want to suggest BillG start using Firefox to protect himself? "
I dont think you understand what spyware/adware is.
The above would help more with certain virii, trojan jpegs, worms. Spyware and adware usually comes with downloaded applications - Firefox cant help you there.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think you got spyware confused with somethin
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think you got spyware confused with somethin
However, I'm not sure you understand what a worm really is. A worm is a self-propagating agent that goes from computer to computer without user intervention. The browser the user chooses to use won't matter at all.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I think you got spyware confused with somethin
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Not all adware/spyware is manually installed...
And even if Microsoft shuts down the cross-zone exploits, there's still the problem that ActiveX is too easy to run. You don't download and install ActiveX components, you just click "OK" on a routine dialog box. You can disable that by changing the setting for your security zones to block it instead of asking you, but that's not the default. And since there are legitimate sites that use ActiveX (though fewer are requiring it these days), a significant number of people who use IE are going to be reluctant to do that and they're expecting that dialog box to come up now and then and for it to be safe to say OK.
So ActiveX spyware installers will remain a threat even if Microsoft DOES shut down the last cross-zone exploit as long as ActiveX is treated as an "internet" technology. Until Microsoft disables the use of ActiveX except for components that are manually installed and known to be sandboxed (that is, don't just assume all local ActiveX is safe and disable the ones that you've found holes in, as they do now) any browser that uses Microsoft's HTML control (including the latest Netscape browser) is inherently unsafe and should not be used.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Perhaps someone should suggest...
Good thing they took him out of the loop a long time ago.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
faovnb sikle
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Add Your Comment
Add A Reply