Neighbourhood Watch to fight 'badware'

New initiative aimed at fighting spyware, malware and deceptive adware.

Google, Lenovo and Sun Microsystems have pledged their support for a new initiative aimed at fighting spyware, malware and deceptive adware. The Neighbourhood Watch-style campaign Stopbadware.org is being led by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in the US, and Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute in the UK.

The effort aims to provide clear and objective information about downloadable applications so that consumers can make informed choices about what they download onto their systems.

Stopbadware.org will gather stories and data from users, and use that data to inform its research efforts. The Stopbadware.org website invites less technical users to submit stories about their experiences with 'badware', as well as appealing to those who are more technically-aware to submit technical data reports. Those behind the campaign also plan to write standards and testing procedures to define 'badware', and spotlight the worst offenders with the help of the anti-malware community.

Full details of the project can be found at http://www.stopbadware.org/.

01 February 2006

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