180solutions Promised Non-Sneaky Solution Fails To Be Non-Sneaky

from the like-that's-surprising dept

Among the high profile adware firms out there, 180solutions has been one of the more vocal. Last year, the company (which was notorious for surreptitious installs) blamed bad distributors for the problem -- and promptly bought the worst one, effectively rewarding them. Realizing that looked bad, the company then sued some "rogue" distributors -- though some may ask why it took so long. Then, the company decided that it was going to "renotify" everyone who had their software to make sure they wanted it. Renotify, of course, is a bit of a misnomer, since so few people had been notified in the first place. The company followed this up by claiming it was changing the way its software was installed to make it nearly impossible for affiliates to have it install surreptitiously. Well, nearly impossible isn't quite the same thing as impossible, and malware researcher Ben Edelman has now documented a case where one affiliate has hacked its way around 180solution's "solution" allowing the software to be installed anyway -- without any approval at all. Edelman also details why 180solution's initial window explaining the software (if it is shown, which it wasn't in this case) is still incredibly misleading. Finally, Edelman points out that every time some security researchers point out these flaws, 180solutions immediately puts out self-serving press releases talking about how it shuts down those bad actors. As Edelman suggests -- it seems like 180solutions should be tracking down these bad affiliates on its own, before the researchers have to do it for them. Of course, as we've wondered in the past, is there any way for these firms to actually make money without surreptitious installs of their software?
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  • identicon
    Mike, 20 Feb 2006 @ 5:51am

    No Subject Given

    Porn!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Not Mike, 20 Feb 2006 @ 5:55am

      Re: No Subject Given

      Well... I don't think porn is the solution to everything, but I've been wrong before!!11

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Mike, 20 Feb 2006 @ 5:58am

        Re: No Subject Given

        Porn! = 3.1415926535897932384626433832795

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          the unknown, 20 Feb 2006 @ 9:22am

          Re: No Subject Given

          okay, so where is this going ?
          ...Completely lost.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Not Mike, 20 Feb 2006 @ 9:56am

            Re: No Subject Given

            You lost because you didn't read the article carfuly. If you did you would have realized that corporate diversification in the tech world leads to corruption. Ergo, productivity goes down due to waste as a result of deviant employees. Now, following this line of thought, you realize that this deviation leads directly into the porn industry. So you should be clued in now.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Not Mike, 20 Feb 2006 @ 9:50am

          Re: No Subject Given

          No, actually Porn is ~ E=MC^2

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    SmallTwig, 20 Feb 2006 @ 1:09pm

    Just to let everyone know...

    I would just like to take this oppertunity to let everyone know just how much I hate 180, **Picks Up his Colt, and shoots the PC right through the case 8 times**

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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