Got it dead wrong

Implications: Virus is not spyware; To much money to prevent malware.

Analysis: Boy did this article get it wrong.  First a quick definition lesson, viruses are not spyware, or for that matter malware, per se.  A good anti-viruses program, with an up to date and latest "def", will not catch most spyware or malware.  There is a difference between the two.  Viruses are design to invade, and for the most  part, do harm to the system (i.e. format hard drive, disrupt video and clog the system .... etc.).  Viruses are unwanted intruders.  Although malware is closer to viruses that spyware, how spyware/malware enter your working environment is different from viruses intrusion.  The reason given by anti-virus authors, in defense of their software, is that they can't stop spyware, and some malware, because the user needed to take some positive action to invite spyware/malware to their PC, therefore, spyware/malware are "permissive" invaders and are distinguishable from invading viruses.  What - permissive - you got to be kidding!  Yes - permissive.  When a user goes to just about any website, including Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, they want to add a "cookie" to your system - spyware that helps them track your activity.  It's not that Microsoft, Yahoo and Google want to hurt you - they just want to know what you are up to, and, according to anti-virus publishers, "you", the 'user', gave them "permission" when you logged on to their site.  Therefore, anti-virus software cannot legally prevent them - or so they say.  Other sites that add spyware/malware to hurt, disable your PC and/or spread their message.

Enough of school.  Spyware, more than malware, is the revenue tracker for many websites.  For the most part, anti-spyware/malware software knows the name of the spyware/malware dropped on your system - "DoubleClick", "2o7" and on and on.  It appears that their anti-software should operate just like anti-virus software in preventing them from taking host in your system.  But it doesn't.  Remember you, by going to that site, gave "permission", even though you may not know "consciously" that you had, for the spyware/malware to be on your system.  Therefore the user must "consciously" revoke the permission and forcibly remove the spyware/malware.   Then the anti-spyware/malware software goes to work. 

There are, I must add, procedures and methods that do eliminate some spyware/malware prophylactically. Here is were the article and I agree - if you don't go there (those sites with spyware/malware) and/or are not hooked-up to the Internet you have a chance.   I have a client who complains that his PC, running XP, slows to almost a halt.  He further states that he is going to the same sites that he always does and that after the last time we clean his machine it only took about a day or two before it started to stutter again.  His laptop, he says, that he uses at hotels does have the same problem.  After an inspection we found 4,438 spyware/malware on his PC.  Enough to slow down a herd of duel-core processors.  "Don't go there" - I say.  But, you know, he is a revenue stream.  I either sell him the upfront scrubber, which do a fairly decent job (for big bucks) like the hotels, lock down his system and/or put "parent guard" on.  Even the most secure systems get, from time to time, spyware/malware.

I talk to my U.S. Senator who said that Congress was working on a bill that takes the "sub-conscious permission", as a matter of law, away and replaces it with a very "conscious" permission for the spyware/malware to be loaded.  That only means the "YES" becomes "NO" and "NO" means "YES" to any permission question and once given applies to everything.  Nice try.

Frankly, everyone is making money off of spyware/malware.  Those that create it, those who license it, those who try to prevent, and those that try to clean it up.  One can be a little bit smarter in were they go on the Internet, complain to the vendor about their business practices, and buy/implement preventative tools and procedures.  Which means, I make money.  The end-user is the target of the spyware/malware and until the industry, as a whole, deciedes to get rid of spyware/malware it will be here to stay.