|
| Sanford Wallace and his company have to pay more
than $4 million. |
Infamous spyware king Sanford Wallace and his Smartbot.Net team
have been ordered by a New Hampshire court Wednesday to pay more
than $4 million based on his illegal internet practices.
Wallace and Smartbot.Net downloaded spyware onto computers
without computer users' permission, which then allowed them to
hijack the user's preferred search engine. In conjunction with the
fine, the Federal Trade Commission barred Wallace from continuing
to download spyware, software, and altering search engine features
without consumers' consent.
According to experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, Wallace first
appeared as a cyber criminal in the 1990s as a spammer. In 2004, it
was revealed that his spyware activity caused computers to slow
down and CD trays to randomly open.
"Cyber criminals such as Wallace create business disruption and
personal threats throughout the world," said Ron O'Brien, senior
security analyst at Sophos. "Sophos has been tracking Wallace for
several years, and in general there has been a sharp rise in cyber
criminals being caught, primarily due to tougher laws and more
effective security solutions."
In 2004 the Federal Trade Commission ordered Sanford Wallace to
immediately stop all spyware activity as he was infecting computers
with spyware and then trying to sell infected computer users the
remedy.
"The FTC should be applauded for taking immediate action against
this well-known spyware criminal," continues O'Brien.
"Unfortunately spyware organizations are popping up each and every
day - computer users, the first line of defense, must be more aware
of the danger and be sure to have the proper security solution to
protect them from being a victim of such cyber activity."
Sanford Wallace was nicknamed "Spamford" by some members of the
anti-spam community because of his notoriety for sending junk email
during the 1990s.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can control network access and defend
against the threats of spam, hackers, spyware and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.