Ethics Newsline®

NEW YORK
Spyware and spam — two of the most hated banes of Internet usage — both figured in ethics-related headlines last week.

An annual survey called Web@Work found that the number of companies reporting spyware infestations jumped by almost 50 percent last year, with about 92 percent of firms saying they have found some sort of spyware on their computers, according to the New York Times.

While “spyware” is a broad term covering a variety of intrusive software ranging from commonplace cookies to sinister programs that completely seize control of computers, the biggest current worries are new infestations by “keyloggers,” a particularly dangerous type of spyware that records keystrokes and can steal passwords and other information, according to the Times.

Also last week, spammers won a round against an Internet-security firm called Blue Security, which had mounted an attack against spam — only to throw in the towel after the villains smothered the company in an avalanche of revenge-motivated spam, according to BusinessWeek and the Associated Press.

Blue Security had adopted a controversial strategy of fighting spam with spam, bombarding spammers with requests from clients that they be taken off mailing lists — half a million of them emailed at once, the Washington Post reported.

The strategy worked — for a while. But a Russia-based spammer hijacked tens of thousands of computers and flooded the Blue Security website with so much traffic that customers couldn’t access it, according to the Post. The spammer also threatened to infect Blue Security’s clients with viruses.

CNET reported that Blue Security ran up the white flag because it said it didn’t want to endanger other businesses.