Editorial: Assault on malicious software

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006 | 8:09 a.m.

Computer users (and who isn't these days?) are advised to study the vernacular and capabilities of digital pirates if they want to have even half a chance of protecting their privacy.

Spyware, adware, malware, Trojan horses, viruses and worms are some of the terms everyone should be aware of before logging on to networks or the Internet. Even knowing of them and their malicious purposes, and taking such preventive action as loading software and hardware firewalls, often is not enough. A recent study estimated that 59 million people in the United States alone have computers infected with unwanted software.

The consequences range from annoyances, such as frequent pop-up adds and hundreds of e-mail solicitations, to a loss of financial privacy. Many programs entering computers from e-mail or software downloads work their way through everything on a user's computer, then copy and transmit all useful information, including Social Security, credit card and bank account numbers.

Other programs almost perfectly mimic Web sites such as those operated by banks and eBay's PayPal, and trick users into entering personal information that becomes an identity thief's ticket to paradise.

Earlier this month, during the Consumer Electronic Show, we urged computer companies to spend as much time on security as they do on new products. This essential need is now being addressed by three giants in the computer industry -- Google, Sun Microsystems and the Lenovo Group, a Chinese company that is the world's third-largest maker of hardware. The three companies are financing a group of computer and Internet experts at Harvard and Oxford universities. Their mission is to track down and identify the companies that make and disseminate malicious software, and to provide consumers with technical and practical advice on how to protect their privacy. They are being assisted by Consumer Reports WebWatch.

The group, which already has a Web site -- StopBadware.com -- describes itself as the "neighborhood watch" of the cyber world. There are many ad hoc anti-spyware groups in the country, but we believe this effort, with its financing and technical expertise, has the best chance of rallying consumers and helping them to gain the upper hand against digital intruders.