Malicious spyware appears more common than believed, says EarthLink report. Think your PC is safe from hackers, crackers, and snoops? Don’t be so sure. According to a report being released this week by EarthLink and security software vendor Webroot, as many as one out of three PCs could contain spyware that can secretly record and transmit sensitive personal information. Those figures come from EarthLink’s SpyAudit, a free Web-based service that helps users discover whether their systems harbor spyware. Since going online in January, SpyAudit has performed 1.5 million audits and uncovered more than 500,000 copies of Trojan horses and secret monitoring software on users’ hard drives. Matt Cobb, vice president of core operations for EarthLink, cautions that the audit figures don’t necessarily mean that one of every three computers is compromised. Some machines may contain more than one copy of malware, and the same machines may have undergone several audits, boosting the overall totals. Still, Webroot CEO David Moll says, “It’s clear from looking at these numbers that the fastest growing sectors of spyware are also the most malicious. That spells a troubling future for everyone.” Full Story
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