Microsoft buys anti-spyware software for Windows

By Steve Malone

Posted on 17 Dec 2004 at 10:09

Microsoft has bought New York anti-spyware company Giant Software. Redmond says that it plans to make available a beta version of a spyware protection, detection, and removal tool, for its Windows products based on the Giant AntiSpyware product within a month.

Giant's staff of 10 will now continue to develop the product for Microsoft. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Users of Windows 2000 and above will be able to block known spyware and other unwanted software from being installed on the computer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft sees the product working in tandem with the new security features introduced in XP Service Pack 2 launched last summer.

Spyware, along with Phishing, has become the security talking point of 2004, another tool for criminals and other illegitimate companies to extract money from the unwary. A a recent report co-sponsored by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance suggested that up to eight out of 10 computers are infected by some form of spyware. Earlier this year, EarthLink and Webroot Software, found an average of almost 28 spyware programs running on each computer they surveyed.

In the US many states have rushed though laws banning spyware and there are several bills going through Congress. However, unlike viruses or even phishing, it is hard to identify what spyware actually is. The most common scare stories concern identity theft whereby a piece of hidden software transmits back keystrokes allowing a hacker access to passwords and other sensitive information. More likely is just plain nuisance software which hijacks browsers and displays unwanted, and often inappropriate, pop up ads. Often, the company which installed the spyware in the first place will pop up a banner offering 'a fix'.

The problem is, as online marketers quickly pointed out, that as with email a lot of legitimate companies use similar techniques to, for example, drop tracking cookies on a PC so that if they are shown an ad on one site, it will not be shown again when they move to another.