Posted by Gregg at 09:12 AM in Information Industry When a story makes it above the fold in the Times Sunday Business Section it's a pretty good indication that critical mass has been reached. But Barbarians at the Digital Gate illustrates only the tip of the iceberg. O'Brien and Hansell write about the most well known of the spyware / adware companies - Claria, WhenU and Cool Web Search but the problem of malicious, non "virus" programs taking control of the desktop is much more prevalent than even they portray. As a sophisticated user, I've never been fooled into downloading a virus attached to an email and I read the box that appears before a download from a web site begins. But I and those of you reading this represent a very small percentage of internet users that have the knowledge and information to be cautious. The vast majority of users simply don't know what's suspicious and what's not. And they really shouldn't have to should they? It's just getting way too complicated to safely be on the Internet. At home and work I run ZoneLabs full security suite (anti virus and firewall), Window Washer and SpySweeper. The first time I ran SpySweeper the program detected 15 instances of Adware or Spyware - I only knew two of the programs on my system - and I'm careful! By contrast, I ran a sweep of my sister's computer and there were hundreds of programs running. No surprise she complained her year old computer barely worked. Ecommerce and internet advertising after only eight years is big business and continued impressive growth is forecast into the foreseeable future. That being said if the average consumer alienated by making the barriers to usage too high growth will slow. If the scammers get the upper hand for too long government will have step and regulate which guarantees the baby will be thrown out with the bath water. Everyone with a stake in the continued growth of the industry needs to be responsible for the effect malicious marketing has on the confidence of the user. Technology vendors, marketers, advertisers and publishers need to educate users and run the outlaws out of town – but till then download Firefox and SpySweeper.

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