also @ TechSpot: Check your bill: AT&T adds new 'administrative fee' to wireless bills

Three Dutch firms fined for pushing spyware

By Justin Mann

On December 18, 2007, 12:15 PM

If you peddle spyware, fear the Dutch. It seems that a telecom regulations company based in the Netherlands called OTPA has levied some steep fines against three different companies for the peddling of spyware. The software in question. DollarRevenue, ended up making its rounds on 22 million machines worldwide. It wasn't actually crafted by the firms fined, but was pushed by them due to the high monetary incentive for doing so.

Most of that incentive is probably now wiped out, with the €1 Million fine they are now facing. This is an interesting case because it shows the willingness of a third party to help malicious developers or cyber criminals push bad software, if only there is a cash incentive for them. Since most online crime now relates to making a profit, I would expect we'll see even more of this in the future.

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