Adware Firm Accuses 7 Distributors of Using 'Botnets'
Brian Krebs writes in The Washington Post:
A major online advertising company that has been accused by security experts of fueling the spyware problem says it is taking legal action against seven people in six countries who, it claims, used viruses to spread ad software to thousands of computers without their owners' consent.
In lawsuits filed yesterday in a federal court in Washington state, Bellevue-based 180Solutions names seven of its affiliates -- individuals whom it paid to distribute the company's software, which causes advertisements to "pop up" depending on which Web sites the users visit -- and accuses them of installing it on thousands of Microsoft Windows PCs that they had infected with computer viruses. The company seeks unspecified damages and a halt to their distribution of its software.
The legal action is the latest effort by 180Solutions to clean up its image following years of criticism for failing to more closely monitor its distributors and crack down on those who profit from installing its software illegally. Since January, the company says, it has severed ties with more than 500 distributors who were found to have installed its "adware" without the recipient's knowledge or consent.
180Solutions claims the affiliates used "botnets" -- large groupings of hacked, remote-controlled computers or "bots" -- to distribute and install their software. A single botnet can consist of thousands of computers, most sitting on desktops of innocent users who have no idea that a virus infection is allowing a hacker to use their PCs for illegal purposes.
posted by Fergie @ 8/16/2005 12:12:00 PM
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