Spyware Name Games

What's in a name you ask? Well for many companies it's brand recognition and changing it isn't something you do if your a successful brand. After all, if your customers can't easily find you, they can't easily buy your product.

So what would drive a company to change it's name? Well, because this blog is about malwares, lets see why some anti-spyware vendor companies do that.

So, lets say I'm the guy behind SpyAxe. I put my product out there because I'm a sneaky, greedy bastard and want to sell (errr...infect) as many users as possible via questionable unethical installs. Great, I'm off to a grand start and my product is just being DLed as fast as I can add\change domains.

But wait, it appears the gendarmes are on to me. Damn, what to, what to do? Wait, I know, I'll just make a little change and now I'm SpywareStrike. Whoohooo......I'm really on my way now.

This is the latest example of a popular business model rogue anti-spyware vendors use. For another example, see this DSLR thread about the name changes one company goes thru, from SpywareNo, to SpySherriff, to SpyTrooper, to SpyDemolisher and all of them are part of the CoolWebSearch Gang.

Well, if you followed along those links you can see what exactly is in a name. Or, rather what could be behind a name, specifically people who are more interested in underhanded, lowlife degenerate ways of making money. You can see a whole lot more of these types of applications by The Rogues List of Family Resemblances, created and maintained by Eric Howes .

As in the real world, in the world of anti-spyware, its buyer (user) beware.