Spyware maker fined
Spyware maker fined
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Saturday, 06, May 2006 09:49
A US spyware maker has been ordered to give back the millions he made by infecting computers over the internet.
Sanford Wallace, and his company Smartbot.Net, were fined £2 million over allegations of infecting PCs with unwanted software programs by exploiting a security vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) brought the action against Mr Wallace claiming the spyware maker did not receive permission from computer users to install the software on their system.
The automatic installation of software without a user's knowledge or consent is against the law in the US.
According to the FTC, one of the spyware programs distributed by Mr Wallace opened a computer's CD tray and triggered a pop-up saying: "If your cd-rom drive's open …You DESPERATELY NEED to rid your system of spyware pop-ups IMMEDIATELY!"
Mr Wallace denied that his actions were a violation of US laws.
Smartbot.Net and the spyware maker have also been banned from engaging in further tactics used by spyware firms to infect computers.
