Google, Sun, others band to fight spyware, adware | CNET News.com

Google, Sun, others band to fight spyware, adware CNET News.com: "A coalition of tech companies, consumer groups and other organizations hopes to do to companies that spread spyware and adware what 'America's Most Wanted' has done to fugitives--stop them in their tracks by publicizing their misdeeds.
The newly formed Stop Badware Coalition will publish the names of companies that it deems are the worst offenders and show how they make money through unethical marketing practices and fraud.
Joining the coalition are search giant Google, PC maker Lenovo, Sun Microsystems, Consumer Reports' WebWatch project, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Oxford Internet Institute in England. Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, now Google's chief Internet evangelist, and Esther Dyson, an investor and editor of Release 1.0, are among the advisors to the group. (Release 1.0 is owned by CNET Networks, publisher of News.com.)
Malicious software can get onto an unwitting victim's computer when the user visits malicious Web sites or by downloading games or other software programs.
Users often do not know that their computers have been infected with malicious software until they start being plagued by pop-up ads, popular vehicles for online pornography, or are notified by authorities that their computers have been hijacked to launch attacks on other computers.
It takes even longer to discover that passwords or other sensitive information, like bank account data, have been stolen and an innocent Web surfer's identity has been stolen after spyware is planted onto the computer.
Internet surfers can visit the Web site, which is expected to go live on Wednesday at Stopbadware.org, to check whether progr"