Boffins from the universities of Oxford and Harvard have joined forces to name and shame the companies that develop and use adware, spyware and other malicious code.
The two universities have formed StopBadware.org under an advisory board that includes internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Esther Dyson.
As well as publishing lists of software programs deemed to be malicious, the organisation will also advise software houses on the best ways to block "badware", and collect user experiences of infection. StopBadware.org will operate in the same manner as Spamhaus, an organisation that collects data on spammers and publishes a list of the world's top offenders.