180Solutions Doesn't Consider Botnets Rogue Distributors?

from the apparently-not dept

We've covered adware firm 180Solutions plenty of times in the past. While the company keeps claiming that all of the bad installs were due to "rogue distributors" and their latest technology would rid them of the problem, it seems that security researchers keep finding all sorts of nasty affiliates getting through. The latest, submitted by someone who prefers to remain anonymous, is that a botnet scam is installing 180Solutions' Zango software. It seems that we keep hearing stories like this, which raise plenty of questions concerning just how cleaned up 180Solutions' affiliate program is. As most people have recognized all along, the company really doesn't have much incentive to kill the rogue distributors, because it seems unlikely they could find enough people who actually want to install the software to keep making the type of money they need to make as a venture-backed company.
Hide this

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


  1. icon
    gwyndion (profile), 26 May 2006 @ 4:50am

    conspiracy theory

    What else is new? "Cleaning up" is relative to the beholder, maybe in their eyes, the "cleaned up" the install so it is even more unobtrusive? Maybe their backers, (more than likely webroot and lavasoft) think that if no one knows it is there, then it must be ok. Never mind the uninstall leporsy that it leaves behind. Methinks these people watched too many commercials as a kid and now all they see is a way to give regular surfers the 5 minute commercial break every fifteen minutes, in the form of time needed to remove the dreaded pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-sides, and pop-tarts.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 May 2006 @ 6:25am

    Re: conspiracy theory

    I prefer cherry frosted

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 May 2006 @ 6:50am

    I've done some user support at my last job, and I recall a few times removing their garbage from user's PCs. I don't recall if this is the same company, I'm about 95% sure it is (the one who's changing their name almost as much as I change socks) but I ended up blocking their entire subnet from our network.

    A path more LAN admins should follow, really. Then even if some of that junk gets on a PC, it can't communicate with it's hosts anyway.

    Hope it's ok to post a link here - these little canned hosts files with a ton of junk sites in them already are a quite valuable tool. Even if you miss or don't detect some of this garbage, it'll end up blocked anyway.

    http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

    www.dnsstuff.com is great for tracking down other info and parent domains as well.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    DittoBox, 26 May 2006 @ 3:28pm

    It's Spyware not Adware

    TechDirt: don't beat around the bush: It's Spyware not Adware.

    I refuse to call Spyware by the name the unethical and immoral industry calls it: Adware.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.