Rogue Anti-spyware is a Growing Concern

Posted on December 19, 2005

Anyone who has used the Internet in 2005 has probably encountered a rogue anti-spyware, which is software that does not actually remove spyware as promised or worse it is spyware itself. A recent excellent ZDNet post on the subject listed the top ten rogue anti-spyware applications. The ZDNet also links to a long list of rogue anti-spyware products provided by Spyware Warrior. Spyware Warrior offers this definition of rogue anti-spyware:

"Rogue/Suspect" means that these products are of unknown, questionable, or dubious value as anti-spyware protection.

Some of the products listed on this page simply do not provide proven, reliable anti-spyware protection or may be prone to ridiculous false positives. Others may use unfair, deceptive, high pressure sales tactics to scare up sales from gullible, confused users. A very few of these products are either associated with known distributors of spyware/adware or have been known to install spyware/adware themselves.

For those who are having trouble telling the difference between trustworthy anti-spyware and rogue anti-spyware the Spyware Warrior also provides a list of trustworthy anti-spyware products here. It is best to check with a list like this if you unsure about a product you are about to install.


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