C|net slammed for wrapping Nmap downloads with cruddy toolbar
Lyon added that consumers downloading VLC, the popular open-source media player software, are also being offered the Babylon toolbar, via what he described as a a "Trojan installer".
Several anti-virus firms apparently agree with this assessment because Cnet's Nmap installer is already detected as a Trojan by BitDefender and F-Sc and as a potentially unwanted program by Panda, McAfee and others, according to VirusTotal ( here ).
Our own incomplete checks suggest that only Windows users are offered the Babylon Toolbar when they download VLC.
Paul Ducklin, Sophos's head of technology, Asia Pacific, shares Fyodor's concerns, arguing that download.com should be offering the toolbar only to those make an informed choice to use it, via an opt-in process.
"A software installation for product X which attempts to foist an unrelated product Y onto your computer by default is poor security practice," Ducklin writes. "Anything outside the obvious remit of the installer should be clearly and unequivocally opt-in, not opt-out."
This is written to 'BillP\WinPatrol' in the 'Program Files' folder of your C:\ drive. One last useful option on this tab is 'Lock file types'. If you've ever been frustrated by legitimate programs changing your carefully modified file associations even
The mere fact that I agree to allow Microsoft to track my clicks, doesn't give Microsoft the right to piggy back on Google's search algorithm. C'mon, how ingenious is it really, just to copy the results the browser is displaying - and enhancing the