FTC demands more power against spyware

Prosecutions and fines needed to deter badware makers.

Representatives of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the consumer protection body which has seen some success in the past in bringing spammers to justice, have called for greater powers to bring down makers of malicious spyware.

At a spyware forum in Washington, D.C. earlier this week, a commissioner from the body is reported as having called for powers to impose fines, in addition to the current ability to confiscate illegal earnings. Several anti-spyware laws are processing through the US approval system, but have taken several years and are still not in force.

Another FTC representative suggested that judges involved in malware-related cases often lack the understanding required to correctly assess the damage caused. The FTC’s intervention contributed to the

recent collapse

of spyware firm

Direct Revenue

, although the people behind the firm are thought to have walked away with healthy profits from their scams.

A report of the forum’s findings is at

ComputerWorld


here

.

Posted on 31 October 2007 by

Virus Bulletin