The Download Dot-Con

nikcub.appspot.com

40 points·nikcub··6 comments

I work for a security software company, and made a definition today that detects CNET download wrappers. The fact that several other vendors already detect them makes this a much easier decision.

CNet, Brothersoft, Softonic, and a handful of other sites all pull this same scam. I don't know if they all still do, but they managed to alienate a lot of people.

So do we know if they've only recently starting breaching their own policy or have they been doing it all along despite the 2005 policy implementation?

Does anyone willingly download toolbars like the ones that come bundled on download.com? Anyway, I've steered clear of CNet downloads for years now. Even before they began doing this and you had a chance of actually getting a download that you knew was clean the whole thing started feeling kind of spammy and shady.

I was using the laptop of a friend recently. He had only Internet Explorer, and when I ran it about 1/3 of the browser window was taken up by toolbar on top of toolbar. Google, Yahoo, Bing, basically anybody that made a toolbar. I asked him if he wanted them, and said he wasn't sure, but didn't want the browser to stop working if he got rid of them.

I got rid of them for him, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it happens again.

the toolbar is useless. It replaces google search with a search engine powered by, and make to look like google but with a lot more ads. I doubt anybody is using it intentionally.

I tried to find out when they started bundling but couldn't get much info, but it has been a while.

There are lots of people out there who download those toolbars on purpose, usually to get some incentive offered in exchange, like free virtual currency or something. Many of them don't ever realize that they're effectively malware.

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