According to this article, 2 companies and three individuals payed a combined fine of $2,000,000 because they were suspected of infecting 18,000,000 computers with malware. That works out to less than 12 cents per computer. [if I figured it out right]
The Feds were nice enough to suspend a separate fine of $8,500,000.
PC manufacturers say that 50% or more of their support calls are malware related.
Webroot estimates that 89% of people's PCs are infected with an average of 30 pieces of spyware each.
Webroot has identified more than 527,000 malicious web sites, over 100,000 more than there were less than a year ago.
So, in a year it will probably be 627,000 malicious web sites.
89%, that is a high amount.
Sounds kind of high but then there's a lot of people like my Mom who don't even really know they have it or understand what to do about it. I know a lot of people who post here are often trying to help a friend or relative clean up their PCs.
I like this part:
The FTC settlement permanently prohibits the defendants from interfering with a consumers' computer use or from making misleading representations regarding the performance, benefits, features, cost, nature or effect of any type of software code, file or content.
How exactly are they going to enforce that? The Honor System I suppose.
Edit> I forgot to say I think we're pretty lucky to have forums like this one where people are willing to spend their time helping each other out as much as the people do here ![:)]()
.