[FOLLOWUP] FTC Sues Spyware Companies

The Federal Trade Commission has filed lawsuits against two companies involved in distributing spyware, Seismic Entertainment and Smartbot.net. The suits claim that the companies exploited flaws in the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to distribute software that then caused computers to malfunction.

The man behind both companies named in the lawsuit is Sanford Wallace... a name familiar to long-time netizens. In the early '90s, Wallace was heavily involved in sending "junk faxes" before the practice was outlawed, and was one of the first spammers against whom legal action was taken.