p2p news / p2pnet: World Cup footie could be dangerous to your computer and not because you punch the screen in when your side loses.

The statement comes in a product promo piece for McAfee SiteAdvisor, which says a significant number of World Cup associated sites are polluted with spyware, adware, “and other unwanted software” designed to, “exploit fans’ passions for financial gain”.

With this in mind, “Angola has the most dangerous soccer team in the world, at least when ranked by the safety of Team Angola’s World Cup screensavers,” says McAfee. Next come Brazil and Portugal and among players, Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), David Beckham (England) and Ronaldinho (Brazil) who, “pose significant danger to fans”.

By way of example, McAfee says one of the “top natural” or “non-sponsored” links for Brazil’s Ronaldinho is soccer-desktop.com, ” devoted to soccer themed wallpaper, screensavers, ‘hotbars’ and icons.

These files are free, the security firm points out, saying soccer-desktop.com makes its money by bundling unrelated programs with downloads and for each program downloaded along with a screensaver, the site earns.

“So, what does the average fan get, along with their Ronaldinho screensaver?” – asks McAfee, going on:

It starts with newdotnet, which changes users’ error pages, tracking users’ searches as well as sometimes slowing a PC and/or causing crashes. Next, the unsuspecting user gets not just one but two pieces of WhenU software, SaveNow adware and the CrunchGames tool bar. SaveNow displays ads that it purports to be relevant to a user’s searches. CrunchGames adds a series of “hot game” buttons to a user’s browser and shows pop-up ads when the user browses the Web.

Lastly, the user is prompted to ‘Finish’ or say ‘No Thanks’ at this screen.

The user who clicks ‘Finish’ isn’t actually done. He gets re-directed to a ringtone site.

McAfee also notes that Flycell widely promises free ringtones in its advertising pages, “But when a user signs up, the user is later charged $9.99 per month – a fact disclosed only in Flycell’s fine-print.”

The top 10 World Cup teams with a high percentage of sites with adware, spyware and malicious downloads include:

1. Angola 24.0%

2. Brazil 17.2%

3. Portugal 16.2%

4. Argentina 13.6%

5. USA 13.0%

6. Italy 12.7%

7. Spain 11.2%

8. Netherlands 10.9%

9. Iran 10.9%

10. France 10.8%

The top 10 players with a high percentage of sites with unwanted downloads are:

1. Lama (Angola) 45.5%

2. Christian Lara (Ecuador) 41.7%

3. Loco (Angola) 41.7%

4. Roberto Carlos (Brazil) 40.0%

5. Mateus (Angola) 38.5%

6. Fernando Torres (Spain) 36.4%

7. Raul (Spain) 36.4%

8. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) 36.4%

9. Ronaldo (Brazil) 36.4%

10. Ze Roberto (Brazil) 36.4%

Also See:
McAfee SiteAdvisor – Angola Beats Brazil by 7 Percent in World Cup of Spyware, June 14, 2006

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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