Eric Auchard
Internet researchers at Harvard and Oxford universities are seeking to enlist Web users in a program to name and shame suppliers of spyware and other malicious software programs.
The Stop Badware Coalition will seek to spotlight companies that make millions of dollars by tricking Web users into putting spyware, adware or other deceptive software on their machines, said organizers from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and the Oxford Internet Institute. The multi-year project is financially backed by Google and computer makers Lenovo Group and Sun Microsystems. It is advised by US consumer advocacy group Consumer Reports WebWatch, its backers said.
“This is mostly a highlighting and warning and education project,” said Vint Cerf, one of the pioneers of the Internet who now holds the title of chief Internet evangelist at Google.
Cerf is serving on the advisory board of StopBadware.org.
The coalition aims to solicit reports of malicious software from Web users through its site, StopBadware.org. Then it will issue reports naming offending products and companies in an effort to educate consumers.
Over time, project organizers said, they hope to team up with commercial security software makers to create automated tools to block “badware.”
These tactics seek to go beyond lawsuits and efforts to work with regulators to use the power of publicity to expose what organizers say are the unethical practices of aggressive marketers.
These firms have been criticized widely for spreading software that installs incessant pop-up advertisements on PCs.
