Spyware Based ID Theft Ring Uncovered

phaedo00 wrote to mention an Ars Technica article discussing a massive identity theft ring uncovered by security software firm Sunbelt. From the article:"According to one of their employees, Alex Eckelberry, during the course of one of their recent investigations into a particular Spyware application--rumored to be called CoolWebSearch--they've discovered that the personal information of those 'infected' was being captured and uploaded to a server."

Bound to happen eventually

[magicchex]

Not surprising. Also, this is one spyware app I find almost everytime I "fix" someone's computer. It's very widespread among those who are idiots with their security.

as intended

[Anonymous Coward]

isnt this exactly what all spyware does?
hence the name "spyware"

Re:CoolWeb Search?

[Dachannien]

As a general rule, spyware apps have the lamest titles ever to grace a program. Run Spybot S&D - it lists the name of each piece of software as it looks for them, and every last one of them has a stupid name.

Re:CWS

[MrShaggy]

I agree with the other responder. Its why I jumped back into linux as a home machine. It was become a daily thing. Run 2 hours a day of scans. I was on a win2k box. Ihavent had any such problems since.

If I didnt know any better I think that MS leaves things like that unpatched to force you to upgrade to the latest and greatest.

Re:"removal" tools

[I.M.O.G.]

Lots of factors, just like RL. Compare going to a jewelry store to going to a pawn shop - there are recognizable differences when you look at them. In the same way, you have to evaluate the author and the source. Like Trend Micro, its very easy to see that they are a reputable company. Previously when merjin was working on the tool, you would have had to know something about him, what other reputable people said who used the tool, and the nature of the site the download was coming from. You'll notice my links are from majorgeeks, who supply a lot of downloads, some of the tools they supply are great, some are marginal, but all are clean and the site is maintained well if problems are found with any files.