Adware Shifts Focus from Advertising to Data Harvesting

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Quote:Adware – the annoying software most people know to irritate them with distracting ads – is increasingly taken on a more invasive form and often bundled with spyware as creators seek to tap the potential riches of the data harvesting business, according to Bitdefender research.

Just like web advertising boosted the amount of user-generated content in the dot-com era, so has it done with software applications. The integration of advertising and pay-per install programs in freeware applications as a means of monetization has been just like a breath of fresh air for small software developers around the world. However, greed and the desire to get most money with the least of effort have given adware an ugly and dangerous turn. This report is a summary of the most prominent, most dangerous adware components that can impact on the user, their computers or both.

Malicious adware distribution for Q2, 2012: (...)

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