Five major computer security companies are collaborating to create a unified naming system for spyware and will jointly develop tools to eliminate harmful software.
This initiative from ICSA Labs, McAfee, Symantec, Thompson Cyber Security Labs, and Trend Micro aims to resolve the current confusion caused by antivirus companies naming spyware in their own ways and designing prevention programs with different methods.
“There is still a lot of confusion regarding the nature of spyware and the effectiveness of tools designed to eliminate it,” said Larry Bridwell, an expert from ICSA Labs.
Initially, the new organization will introduce measures to help people identify and remove spyware from their systems. Later, they hope to create programs that help users avoid falling victim to spyware traps.
The group indicated that collaboration is crucial, as the number of spyware has increased annually by 50-100%. In recent years, high-tech criminal groups, advertising companies, and various malicious actors have been employing nefarious tricks to install spyware on users’ computers. Some of these nuisance programs infiltrate PCs through email attachments, while others hide behind popular software such as peer-to-peer file-sharing systems or automatically install on the system if the victim inadvertently visits a previously compromised website.
The announcement of collaboration by these five companies comes just days after the launch of the Stop Badware campaign by Google, Sun Microsystems, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and the Oxford Internet Institute.
