E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: Report: Consumers Changing Online Habits Due to Spyware
Posted by: Keith Regan 2005-07-07 14:26:04

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One of the long-feared results of Internet security problems -- its potential effect on consumer behavior and eventually, spending -- might be starting to materialize, according to a new report. The Pew Internet & American Life project says that a survey that it conducted found that 91 percent of Internet users have changed their online behavior out of fear of falling victim to hidden spyware scams. Pew Project Associate Director Susannah Fox said the changes might be the result of increasing awareness of spyware's dangers and its prevalence online.

Re: Report: Consumers Changing: Spyware is not the real problem
Posted by: martinwguy 2005-07-08 04:37:51 In reply to: Keith Regan

No one ever seems to point out that the reason the world is afflicted with dangerous spyware and viruses is entirely due to multiple gaping security flaws in Microsoft products.
Every program under MSDOS and Windows can write to any file on the entire system, so any program you install always has the ability to take total control of the Windows box. MacOS before version X is no better in this respect.
Every component of the Office suite plus Outlook Express will execute active content in documents and messages, so that viruses are carried wherever Microsoft Office documents go, and wherever Outlook is used.
The result is that Windows users (ie most of the planet) live in fear. For normal operating systems such as the Unix variants the problems that plague Windows users are almost entirely unknown.