Xupiter *VIRUS*

[TheVampire]

Apparantly, Wired magazine does not think that Xuptier is a virus.

http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57467,00.html

I disagree, seeing as how it *infects* your PC without warning. My PC was attacked yesterday. It only took about 20 minutes to clean it out, but it's the principle of it.

Should the creators / distributors of this program be subject to arrest, just like anyone else that creates a virus?

Robert

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

No... because it is listed in the user agreement of programs that install it. See my last message with the /. article. iSeriesCodePoet
IBM iSeries (AS/400) Programmer

 

[TheVampire]

iSeries,

No, it infected my PC merely by me browsing to a web page that was unrelated to the Xupiter program, did not mention the Xupiter program whatsoever, and it was downloaded with no warning whatsoever. All I noticed was that my cursor turned into an hourglass, my hard drive started running, and then my IE setting changed and I was redirected to their homepage. I did not click on any pop-up or anything else that could have initiated the install, and I did not see any user agreement or click on any “I Agree” button of any kind.

That makes it a virus as far as I'm concerned.

Robert

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

Good point... I didn't read into it any more than the article. That is way I will be blocking the site at my firewall tonight... along with hotbar. iSeriesCodePoet
IBM iSeries (AS/400) Programmer

 

[Grenage]

Well it's definately not a virus is it. It doesn't replicate from your machine to others or follow any other virii traits.

It's just another piece of trash software

 

[TheVampire]

Let's see, it follows these traits:

1: Installs silently.

2: Overwrites or changes system settings without permission.

3: Hides itself in the system registry.

4: Re-installs itself if not completly deleted.

5: Changes the areas of the registry it uses each time, so as to try to remain hidden.

6: Damages the users machine by making some programs inoperative ( but not in all cases ).

Replication and transmission to another system? If you *have* to have that, then maybe it's not a virus. I guess a better classification would be a *worm* or a *trojan horse* . It still should be illegal, and the makers subject to arrest, fines and jail time. I'm considering contacting the FBI and seeing what can be done.

Robert

 

[Grenage]

Ah but a worm replicates itself, and a trojan allows a user to operate functions on your machine (that also needs to be installed by a local user).

No doubt it's probably illegal/immoral for use on the net, but still - not a virus/worm/trojan

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

Still we can boycot that search engine. That is all it is. iSeriesCodePoet
IBM iSeries (AS/400) Programmer