Spyware vs. Spyware   12/8/2004 - 1,446 views, 1 Comment

CNet news is reporting that adware and spyware (and bears, oh my!) has started targeting competitor wares by detecting and removing them from computers infected by both.

In fact, in a lawsuit filed last month, Avenue Media is accusing competitor Direct Revenue of detecting and removing Avenue Media’s “Internet Optimizer” program from users’ computers.

Direct Revenue’s program monitors a user’s websurfing, and delivers targeted ads to the users which are relevant to the sites to which the user surfs. For its part, Internet Optimizer is described by FocalCurve.com as: “Internet Optimizer (IO) is referred to in security and anti-virus circles as App/Optimiz-A. When installed, IO hijacks Internet Explorer’s error pages. Instead of getting a standard 404 error page from the server you were trying to reach, you’ll be redirected to a search page at internet-optimizer.com. While this seems fairly harmless, it’s the trojan aspect of Optimizer that poses the greatest security risk. The software opens a hole in your operating system which allows remote programs to download and install without your knowledge or consent. It has also been known to cause random system crashes and to interfere with normal web surfing.”

According to the lawsuit, filed in Seattle, “DirectRevenue, knowingly and with intent to defraud, exceeded its authorized access to users’ computers…by automatically uninstalling Avenue Media’s Internet Optimizer upon installation or update of DirectRevenue’s competing browser.”

Avenue Media claims that DirectRevenue’s alleged actions have caused Avenue Media to lose 1million customers, and as much as $10,000 per day.

Aunty has two questions about this:

1. It’s hard to know for whom to root, really, isn’t it?
2. $10,000 per day? Are we in the wrong business?

You can read more about this
at CNET News.com.