When is Spyware Not Spyware?
In my earlier article eBay Toolbar Alternatives, I did not give one of the toolbars (MOOBar) a recommendation because one out of four of my antispyware scanners reported that it contained spyware. To be fair, I informed the author, who replied,
I sent him my scan information, and some avenues to contact to have his software certified by the antispyware company as actually being spyware free. He has yet to respond, although I do believe it may be a false alarm (also known as a false positive in security lingo).
This begs the question, if only one out of four spyware scanners report a result, is this reliable? Are the spyware scanners themselves reliable?
Like the antivirus industry, sometimes spyware scanners can mistakenly report spyware when it isn't there. It can misidentify things that lead it to believe that you have a particular piece of malware on your system.
Unlike the antivirus field, where most antivirus programs catch every known virus a majority of the time, the antispyware industry is still maturing. This means that one antispyware program is not enough to catch most spyware residing on your computer. So to answer the questions, generally, the spyware scanners and their results are reliable. However, you should not rely on only one antispyware product. Two is better. Three is good.
Each antispyware program has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are good at catching key loggers, while others ignore that class of threat and are better at catching adware. For links to some good antispyware products, both commercial and free, I will be adding them to my downloads page.
There's DEFINATELY nothing which could be remotely considered Spyware inside any MOO* product - in almost 3 years and 10s of 1000s of downloads, you're the first person to even have a scanner notice anything (and at least one of the other 'MOOs' has been certified spyware-free on a couple of download sites).
I sent him my scan information, and some avenues to contact to have his software certified by the antispyware company as actually being spyware free. He has yet to respond, although I do believe it may be a false alarm (also known as a false positive in security lingo).
This begs the question, if only one out of four spyware scanners report a result, is this reliable? Are the spyware scanners themselves reliable?
Like the antivirus industry, sometimes spyware scanners can mistakenly report spyware when it isn't there. It can misidentify things that lead it to believe that you have a particular piece of malware on your system.
Unlike the antivirus field, where most antivirus programs catch every known virus a majority of the time, the antispyware industry is still maturing. This means that one antispyware program is not enough to catch most spyware residing on your computer. So to answer the questions, generally, the spyware scanners and their results are reliable. However, you should not rely on only one antispyware product. Two is better. Three is good.
Each antispyware program has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are good at catching key loggers, while others ignore that class of threat and are better at catching adware. For links to some good antispyware products, both commercial and free, I will be adding them to my downloads page.
posted by Peter at
12:55 PM
