14 DAY TRIAL // A U.S. court decided shutting down three Internet companies who were charged with infecting users' computers with "spyware", which was attached to ring tones, music programs and other free accessories or software.
The malicious software tracked users' online activity, hijacked their home pages and then displayed a huge amount of ads as pop-up windows.
The assets of Enternet Media Inc. and Conspy & Co. Inc., from California, and Iwebtunes, with headquarters in Ohio, have been frozen until further court action. The court also asked all three companies to stop downloads of their software.
According to a complaint filed in Los Angeles, Enternet and Conspy attached their spyware software with music files, song lyrics and mobile phone ring tones offered for free on a range of Web sites. It was also found that the software was disguised as a security upgrade for the Internet Explorer Web browser. iWebtunes included the spyware application with a software that played music on blogs.
All the spyware elements found are considered very dangerous and hard to get rid of. Microsoft, Google Inc. and Webroot Software Inc. joined the prosecutors and provided information to help the court reach a verdict.