Spyware spawns big market

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Spyware spawns big market

Whenever Park Eun-ju, 37, opened the Windows Explorer browser on her computer, her home page kept going to a site that she had not chosen, and the pop-up windows became annoyingly frequent. A virus scan showed no problems. At a service shop, however, she discovered that 87 spyware programs were feeding off her system. Spyware, unlike viruses or worms, doesn’t damage the computer system, but instead it bogs down overall performance. Ms. Park’s problems are becoming more common among computer users all over the world, which has led to a growth in the computer security business. According to computer security company Ahn Lab, 1,311 spyware-related cases were reported last month in Korea, compared to 79 in January. In April, the National Police Agency arrested three people who had installed spyware programs on 13 million computers. Industry analysts say that the market for programs that deactivate spyware reached the 10 billion won ($9.3 million) level last month, about four times higher than the market in the same period last year. Spyware programs are automatically installed when a computer user views advertisements on the Internet or downloads free software, most of the time without the user’s knowledge. Once the program is installed, it “spies” on the user’s personal information embedded in the computer and Web surfing habits. This information is then sent through the Internet to people who use them as marketing data. “Although users can take precautions, these programs are spread through the Internet so extensively that it is better to have regular inspections for viruses and related programs,” said Lee Hye-young, a senior official at McAfee, a U.S.-based company that makes anti-virus software. McAfee is also including anti-spyware programs in its products. Smaller cybersecurity companies have made notably quick advances into this market. Kim Lab and Vision Power anticipate sales of 3 billion won this year, they said. The profits were so good that the largest Korean anti-virus software maker, Ahn Lab, also jumped into the anti-spyware market in September. It is currently offering its services with major portal service providers such as Daum. In most cases, scanning is free, but fixing the problem is not. Computer users can also pay about 1,500 won a week or 4,000 won a month for regular computer check-ups and troubleshooting. Security specialists say that to prevent installation of spyware, spam e-mails should be immediately deleted and moving image-viewing programs such as Active X should be downloaded only when absolutely necessary. by Yoon Chang-hee, Wohn Dong-hee
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