FastMP3Search.com.ar ‘badware’
p2pnet.net News:- FastMP3Search.com.ar offers MP3s for download. Try to check it out on Google and you get, “Warning – visiting this web site may harm your computer! You can learn more about harmful web content and how to protect your computer at StopBadware.org.”
The warning comes as part of Google collaboration with StopBadware.org which, together with the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), has filed a complaint against the site with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
“FastMP3Search.com.ar is a site that offers MP3s for download,” it says, going on, “however, it requires users to download a plugin in order to download these songs. Unfortunately, this plugin comes bundled with a ton of adware, Trojan horses, and other forms of badware – none of which is disclosed to the user.”
Here’s what Stopbadware says about FastMP3Search.com.ar:
The plugin and its bundled applications change the configuration of user settings in many ways, including, but not limited to: disabling Windows Firewall, changing the homepage, redirecting valid web addresses, running the bundled applications on startup, and running processes in the background. The user is also bombarded with pop-up advertisements, mostly from rogue anti-spyware and anti-virus applications that are reportedly bundled with badware, in an attempt to deceive the user to download even more badware applications onto their system. FastMP3Search is also difficult or impossible for the average user to uninstall. In addition, after installing FastMP3Search, our testing system slowed down immensely and tended to freeze — leaving us with no other option but to shut the computer down manually by powering off. On those occasions when our computer did not freeze, the system would instead restart without notification.
We currently recommend that users do not download the version of FastMP3Search Plugin that we tested, unless the user is comfortable with the level of risk we identify or until the application is updated consistent with the recommendations in this report.
Click here for the full report.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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