“Lose the spyware or lose your surfers” is one of the messages conveyed by a new Pew Internet & American Life study that shows spyware is changing the online habits of millions of Americans, including those surfing adult websites.
Pew researcher Susannah Fox, who wrote the new study ("Spyware: The Threat of Unwanted Software Programs is Changing the Way People Use the Internet"), said those surveyed who admitted to visiting adult sites are more likely now than before to report spyware, if they found their visits left their computers with such programs.
"We found 13 percent of users [we surveyed] were willing to say they visited adult websites,” Fox tells AVNOnline.com. “Of those willing to admit it, we then looked back and looked at whether they were more likely to report spyware and, in fact, yes, that activity is most closely associated with spyware.”
She said adult site surfers and all other Web surfers are changing their online habits because of the programs. "What we think is that spyware and the threat of spyware are having a chilling effect on some Internet behavior," she says. "Surfers are upgrading their security; that's the good news in the survey. There are so many changing their behavior and they're reading their user guides and changing browsers, or at least getting smarter about it."
The Pew study was released in the same week that Panda Software released its June findings showing three spyware/adware programs purveying adult-oriented advertising and creating other kinds of mischief – including browser homepage changing and toolbar installing without users’ knowledge – were among the top 10 spyware intrusions detected in June.
Pew found 81 percent of Netizens surveyed said they stopped opening email attachments unless they were sure the documents in question were safe, and 48 percent said they stopped going to particular websites if they feared the sites would leave them with spyware or other unwanted programs on their computers.
"I would have to say that avoiding spyware and other guerrilla marketing programs have moved up the ranks," says a staffer at alternative payment program PPPCard who asked not to be identified. "It now comes in at number two and is neck and neck with worries of fraud."
The Pew report said a quarter of the Netizens surveyed saw new programs on their computers that they hadn't put there or new icons on their desktops that seemed to have come from nowhere. One out of five respondents said they’d had their designated browser-launch homepage changed. Eighteen percent of the respondents said they changed their Internet browsers to avoid intrusive programs.
Panda Software Chief Technology Officer Patrick Himojosa said he read the Pew report and saw it as reflecting that spyware is a far higher presence now than it was even a year ago—and that home and commercial Web surfers alike are more aware of its issues.
"I speak to a lot of tech executives around the country and to the end-users on the radio," he says. "From what I've seen, they have the awareness that the chance of getting spyware is higher than a year ago. There's been a lot of media coverage on the spyware, and people who talk to me, from whatever area of expertise they have, they are trying to take action to mitigate it, whether it's the home user being careful about going to sites they don't know to corporate people studying filtering on the perimeter."
Fox says that the more surfers become aware of spyware, the more likely they are to report it, take their own protective steps, and urge those they know to do likewise, whether surfing adult sites or nonadult sites.
"These survey results show that as Internet users gain experience with spyware and adware, they are more likely to say they are changing their behavior," she says. "But what is more alarming is the larger universe of people who have struggled with mysterious computer problems, but have no idea why. Internet users are increasingly frustrated and frightened that they are not in charge of their Internet experience."
Himojosa said spyware makers and purveyors now are less and less likely to enjoy attracting attention to themselves, as compared to the earlier generations of hackers and malware-makers who thrived on drawing attention. He said the reason is purely business. "One thing about these spyware infections, there's a money motivation," he says. "They tend to be a lot more silent on the computer because, just like a biological parasite, you don't want to kill the host because you live off it."
With just under half of Pew respondents saying spyware is a serious threat to online security, it won't be just Internet companies having to worry about the ramifications or the law. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has threatened to start targeting even major, highly familiar advertisers who get caught employing spyware and adware online.
Spyware is the more problematic, because as Pew put it, it piggybacks onto files or programs downloaded online or just through Web pages seen by a surfer, and without the surfer’s knowledge.
Adware at least has the slim distinction that a user has consented to its installation along with a free program, though Pew noted many Netizens lump spyware and adware together as one. Pew also noted that while adware installs only after a user checks and consents to a user agreement, about 73 percent of those polled admitted to not reading user agreements.
Himojosa said that people switching to Web browsers with better protection or anti-spyware products with stronger capabilities to fight and clean out the naughtyware is causing spyware makers and purveyors to start looking for new vulnerabilities.
"The big eyes begin looking at whatever is becoming popular so they can do something [with it]," he says. "When it comes down to it, I don't care what people use. People have to protect their machines. It's a behavioral and a product issue. This stuff changes so rapidly, it's hard for security companies to keep up with the signature files. The whole landscape has changed in the last 18 to 20 months."
