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Spyware - An Increasing Problem for Affiliatesby Michael AnthonyOne of my most profitable affiliate websites recently became a victim or 'target' of some spyware. As a result, I lost a great deal of money and it made me really mad. So I've carried out some quite detailed research into the problem and have also created a simple solution for other webmasters who may find themselves in the same boat. For a look at a real user situation where some spyware gets installed by just following the suggested default options when downloading Kazaa Download Accelerator from download.com take a look here http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/videos/installing%20kazaa/ (with thanks to the UK Affiliate Marketing Forum for permission to use this video clip). The Problem Spyware, often called Adware or Parasiteware is software that you download, knowingly or not as it may come bundled with other applications or as deceptive downloads and consists of 'adware' which is unwanted advertising via pop-up, slider, pop-under or add links to sites for which the original owner does not get paid for and hijacks the affiliate link on their sites...their sole purpose is to worm their way onto your computer and assault you with advertising all day. Essentially, your session on the Internet can be hijacked without you even knowing. Spyware is technology (including, but not restricted to, browser helpers, browser plug-ins, toolbars and pop ups/sliders) that knowingly or unknowingly undermines or removes another affiliate's ability to compete by changing, intercepting or redirecting an affiliate link. Spyware may be installed knowingly or unknowingly by the end user, altering their normal web browser functions and/or installing a third party application that works through the user's altered browser. Spyware is a shorthand term for 'unsolicited commercial software' — that is, a program that gets installed on your computer which you never asked for, and which does something you probably don’t want it to, for someone else’s profit. The spyware problem has grown enormously recently, and many millions of computers are affected. Unsolicited commercial software can typically:
Technical Information Most of this software is only compatible with Windows, and some only affect the Internet Explorer browser. Where do they come from? There are three major ways unsolicited commercial software can make its way on to your machine: Some freeware programs are ‘bundled’ with parasites, which are installed at the same time. The P2P file-sharing programs are notorious for this; in particular, iMesh and Grokster come with countless unwanted add-ons. Often if you are careful to read the small print when you install the software it will warn you about this, and it is sometimes possible to opt out. So always skim the licence agreement when you install and don’t just click Next-Next-Next... but you still can’t be sure they’ll tell you. Many parasites load using Internet Explorer’s ActiveX installation option. When a web page includes a link to an ActiveX program, a window will appear asking the user wishes to execute it. If ‘Yes’ is clicked (or if IE security settings are set lower than normal so that it never even asks), the software is allowed to run and can do anything at all it likes on our computer, including installing parasites. For this reason, you should never click ‘Yes’ to a “Do you wish to download and install...” prompt unless you are 100% sure you trust the publisher of the software, which might not be the publisher of the web site you are viewed — read the dialogue box very carefully. Sometimes sites (or pop-up ads) try to fool you into clicking ‘Yes’ by stating that the software is necessary to view the site, or opening endless error windows if you click ‘No’, or claiming that the digital certificate on the code means it is safe. It means no such thing. ‘Microsoft Authenticode’, signed by companies like Verisign, means only that the company that wrote the software is the same as the company whose name appears on the download prompt — nothing more. Some of the really sleazy parasites, particularly homepage-hijackers and diallers, execute by exploiting security holes in Internet Explorer, ways of getting code to run that are not supposed to be possible, but are due to mistakes in the browser code. Manual Solutions You can do your best to guard against this by ensuring you have the latest updates and patches from Microsoft. Still, there are usually a handful of security holes that have not yet been corrected, so you can never be 100% sure you are safe. One way of reducing your risk of exploitation is to go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Security and set the security level for the Internet Zone to ‘High’. (If no slider is visible, click ‘Default' level to make it appear first.) Then set the security level for the Trusted Zone to ‘Medium’ and add the sites you use and trust to this zone; you may need to do this quite often as many badly-designed sites just won’t work in high-security mode. If you are technical and would like further detailed information, check out http://www.cexx.org/adware.htm Software Solutions The first question that most people want answered...Why doesn’t my anti-virus software detect this? Technically, most unsolicited commercial software isn’t viral: it doesn’t spread from computer to computer, it just installs and runs on one system. That doesn’t mean it’s not harmful, but anti-virus software does not attempt to detect all software that could be harmful. Whether it should is a tricky argument that ends up a question of where you draw the line. Actually some anti-virus programs do detect some of the parasites outlined on these pages, but not nearly all, and not all versions of them. Parasites that install using IE security holes are more likely to be targeted by the anti-virus software vendors, but the selection of targets seems for the most part to be pretty arbitrary. For this reason there are now a number of anti-parasite packages around that work as a complement to anti-virus software. The one that does the best job is called Stopzilla, and it's this program that is offered by the Hijackerware service. The reason that I recommend this particular program is that the producers GUARANTEE that the software won't delete your user's cookies - for an affiliate webmaster it's these cookies which are usually used to track sales and qualifying traffic from your site to your affiliated merchants. In my view, this is a pretty important guarantee if you are making money from your site! If you visit www.lighthousefinance.co.uk, a script is run (IE only) as the site opens which checks your machine for spyware. Clicking the "OK" button will bring you to my new site HiJackerware.com, where I am offering all users and webmasters a chance to prevent the spread of this malicious code. Please make sure that your hard earned traffic isn't hijacked, and please link to this article and/or the hijackerware site to help spread the word. Until the last person online gets rid of this code, the producers will still have a market, but by increasing awareness throughout the online community we can all ensure that this market starts shrinking TODAY. Author ---------------------------------------------- More Affiliate Revenue Resources 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Related Articles to improve Affiliate Programs income ---------------------------------------------- Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
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