Man Ordered to Disable Spyware Programs

[sella35]

Sat Oct 23, 5:07 PM ET Technology - AP

<Snip>

CONCORD, N.H. - A federal judge has ordered a man known as the "Spam King" to disable so-called spyware programs that infiltrate people's computers, track their Internet use and flood them with pop-up advertising.

U.S. District Judge Joseph DiClerico issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Stanford Wallace and his companies, SmartBot.net Inc. of Richboro, Pa., and Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. of Rochester. SmartBot's principal place of business is Barrington.

Prosecutors sought the injunction on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, which targeted Wallace in its first anti-spyware action.

The judge ordered Wallace to remove software code that exploits security holes in computer operating systems and Web browsers, then tracks people's Internet use to bombard them with pop-up ads.

Wallace also is accused of trying to sell computer users $30 remedies called "Spy Wiper" and "Spy Deleter" that the FTC says don't work.

</snip>

Please follow link for entire story:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...te/ftc_spyware

Sella

[Midtowner]

My only worry about the government getting involved here is that these programs will just start coming from overseas.

[MasterWolf]

I dont think spam or spyware is going to go away anytime soon. They will just come up with new ways to infect your computer with advertisements or something.