We have seen a concerning trend that is about to spiral out of control: Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) are further on the rise. What’s even more concerning is
how they are spreading. After big vendors as Oracle (Java) and Microsoft (Bing and Skype) started bundling, now antivirus vendors have joined the game. We did research on some of the most popular PUP practices among the freeware antivirus vendors, and the results are quite disturbing.
PUPs want to get on your computer to make money off of you
First, lets quickly recap what PUPs are and why they’re spreading like wildfire.
PUPs are programs in the form of
toolbars, adware, plugins or other downloads that sneak onto your computer. PUPs are not classified as malware (yet?), since they’re not always harmful but pretty much always annoying, hence the name “potentially” unwanted. But, PUPs are getting more and more unwanted than ever: just the fact that you don’t know what you’re installing is undesired. If you notice a sudden change in your computer’s speed, notice your search engine changed, experience annoying pop-up ads, notice new toolbars in your browser menu bar or any other sudden change in your computer’s behavior or layout, chances are high that your computer has one or more PUPs installed.
