The madness over the term malware and the ongoing saga of Malwarebytes

There seems to be a general belief that the term malware, means malicious software, but that is not true. The prefix “mal” is not an abbreviation for malicious, it is a prefix meaning bad. There are a lot of words beginning with this prefix: malcontent, maladjusted, malevolent, malfunction. So when we use the term malware we mean, literally bad software. Whether that be a virus, a rootkit, a Trojan, a botnet, a rogue, or a mischievous toolbar, installed without the users EXPLICIT permission, it’s all malware, and anything called Malwarebytes should remove malware and shouldn’t split hairs over terminology.

It has come to our attention, from several readers, who took their time to write to Malwarebytes, trying to figure out what in the world is going on with them, that Malwarebytes says that these toolbars aren’t so bad and people can choose not to install them. They say they’re simple to remove. Apparently, from what they say, that’s why they’re not detecting Ask, Babylon, Conduit, MyWebSearch and others anymore. But their own Website defines malware, more or less as we do, bad software, software you probably don’t want and probably don’t even know you have, which includes the likes of Conduit, Babylon, etc.

How many of you would actually install Ask Toolbar, Babylon Toolbar or Conduit? How many of you even know what Conduit is or what it does? Yet, every week we work on dozens of computers and more than 90% of them have one or more of these toolbars installed (and other malware too), and we can’t remember anyone telling us they remember where they got these toolbars. And not a single person has said to us — “No don’t remove Ask Toolbar (or Babylon, or Conduit, et. al.) I like it!” In fact, almost every single person asks us, “How did get this?” And let us tell you, they are not easy to remove. Removing them using Control Panel or even Geek or Revo, leaves the toolbar in your browser, and even with Revo or Geek, some registry files remain; these are very tenacious programs.

As most of you are, by now, painfully aware, our privacy is being attacked from everywhere. And those of you who say, “What do I care? I have nothing to hide” better think again. Would you want someone with binoculars peering into your house while you’re watching TV? Would you? You’re not doing anything wrong, but would you like it if your neighbor had a telescope trained on your living room? Would you like someone following you to the grocery store writing down everything you brought, and everything you did? Would you? Are you doing anything wrong? No. Would you like that, we doubt it. So the next time you read about the government’s intrusion into your privacy, think before you say, “What do I care, I’m not doing anything wrong.” You should care whether you’re doing anything wrong or not.

Ask, Conduit, Babylon, couldn’t exist if not for what we call surreptitious installation. That’s where these toolbars / programs are buried, in bundled installers. And the reason they’re so ubiquitous is because they’re paying big dollars to developers who, strapped for cash, eagerly grab the carrot when it’s dangled in front of them. And so now we have an epidemic of malware, most of it installed without the user’s EXPLICIT consent, without the user’s EXPLICIT knowledge, and installed by deceptive practices.

Most developer’s know that users don’t read installation dialogs, they just click “Next”, “Next”, “Next”, “Finish”; they just want to get the program installed. The companies who make these toolbars make a fortune from them, so they have a lot of money to spend– and they spend some of it on research into how most people install software. Most people are trusting, and they trust that the software they wanted to install is the software they’re installing – and nothing else. They don’t realize that a majority of freeware (and even some commercial software) is bundled with things they don’t want.

And up until a few months ago, we advised you to keep your computer free of this kind of malware by using Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes no longer removes Ask Toolbar, Conduit, Babylon and most of the other ubiquitous malware which comes to you via bundled installers.

We don’t feel Malwarebytes is being forthcoming about this, and we may never know why just a few months ago Malwarebytes removed Ask, Babylon, Conduit, MyWebSearch and others from their definition files. We can speculate that they’ve received some legal threats – some “Cease and desist” orders from lawyers representing these malware companies – but we probably won’t ever be able to find out for sure.

We even understood why Malwarebytes labeled things like Ask Toolbar, Babylon, Conduit and others as PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) – it was to avoid being threatened with legal action by the companies which produces them. And that makes sense. We don’t care that they never really called a spade a spade – that they waded in the waters of euphemisms. Malwarebytes removed PUPs and for that we commended them and recommended them.

Remember, that Malware doesn’t necessarily mean malicious software – although malicious Trojans, viruses, rogues and rootkits are malware also. Malware is not a derivative of “Malicious Software”, mal means bad and/or evil, malware is bad or evil software, software you don’t want, software no one wants, software which can harm your privacy, turn your computer into a billboard, hijack your searches, hijack your preferred search engines, hijack your browser’s homepage, make unwanted changes to your registry, become a conduit through which your browsing habits and your searches are tracked and sent back to servers on the Web where it is collected, collated and sold. These programs can weigh heavy on your browser; we’ve seen them break Internet Explorer and slow Chrome and Firefox to a crawl.

And while Malwarebytes says these kinds of programs are “easy to remove”, it is not true. These programs make dozens of changes to your computer, they make changes to your registry, they make changes to your browser settings. And the average computer user doesn’t know where to look beyond the Control Panel’s remove programs applet. Even Geek or Revo can’t remove all traces of these kinds of programs.

Malware of this type is pandemic and almost all of you have it. Almost all of you are unwilling pawns generating millions of dollars which sustains these malware distributors and makes them wealthy. There was a time when Malwarebytes kept your computer free from this kind of malware, but not anymore. And we’re looking for something else to recommend, something that is easy to use, something that is safe to use. And while we have tools we use to help clean computers, we don’t feel comfortable recommending these tools because if they’re not used carefully and properly the damage which might result may be greater than the malware causes. But we are looking. We are still hoping that Malwarebytes will come around and start removing the kind of malware that most of you have.

Malware is everywhere, and it’s always installed without the user’s explicit consent. Careless installations cause malware infections, and malware infections can harm your browser, your computer, and your privacy.

If you’re not careful your browser will end up looking like this one:

You can call them PUPs or malware, but whatever you call them, we’re sure you don’t want them on your computer.