Security's Everyman

Security's Everyman

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I got an email today from TouchStone Software. It was an ad for their site driveragent.com. They claim to be able to scan your PC for out of date drivers and then for a fee of $29.95 a year they will give you unlimited scans and automatic updates for all of your PC's. Sounds like a good idea and from what I can gather it is a legitimate service. My problem is that they are using a advertising method that is used my phishers and pharmers. Just like so many others that I've written about in the past they are encouraging people to do exactly what we keep trying to teach people not to do.

  • Click on email links
  • Give out Credit Card info to a unknown or untrusted source
  • Allow sites to install agents on your PC
  • Allow sites potentially unfettered access to your hard drive
We keep preaching security and then companies keep encouraging people to ignore basic security just to make money. There are many other ways to advertise your site and service without encouraging people to practice insecurity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, i think you're right that software companies are ignoring security. Instead of making the purchasing process easy, and using the statistics that state if a buyer doesn't complete the purchase within 8 minutes of reading the add, 83% of the time they won't buy it. So, software companies should make the actual purchase difficult and frustrating for the consumer. Then, the software business will lose 50% of it's sales due to a poorly thought out marketing plan. Buty hey! At least everything is secure. The laid-off employees can go home feeling good that they helped support good security on the internet. And that the well-marketed brands like Microsoft will continue to dominate.
- Nashar, Milwaukee, WI

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