The Security Mentor

It's well established that spyware/adware/whatever-you-call-it can popup porn sites and advertising. The adware supplier gets a commission for referring traffic to the sites and/or gets advertising revenue. Security holes in Internet Explorer allow crooked adware suppliers to download their garbage automatically without you doing anything. That's called a "drive-by download".

The popups are often programmed so that if you try to get rid of them you just see more of them.

Maybe you don't mind porn popups, but you sure wouldn't want them showing up if you were in a seventh-grade classroom.

That's what happened to schoolteacher Julie Amero, according to her defense attorney and according to an expert witness. That's right, criminal charges got filed.

If that's not enough to screw up your life by itself, reflect that you might wind up in front of a jury blinded by "Dear God, think of the children!" and an elected judge who is terrified of appearing "soft on crime". I don't know if that's what happened in the Amero case. I don't know if this (anonymous) comment on the newspaper's web site is accurate:

[defense expert witness]Mr. Horner a 40 year computer veteran was not allowed to present all of his company's research and examination of the computer hard drive from the school.

The reason: The prosecutor did not see the presentation before hand. Therefore, the judge did not allow it to be presented.

Yet, the police officer was recalled to counter Mr. Horner's conclusions. But, the defense was not allowed to recall Mr. Horner to counter the police officer's claims.

The amazing thing is that the judge was not fair and balanced. She was on the prosecution's side all the way.

She got convicted. Sentence could be up to 40 years. End of her career no matter how the appeal turns out.

The new version of Internet Explorer, version 7, has a lot of improvements. Until it proves itself, use Firefox or Opera. I have gone so far as to set Zone Alarm to warn me if Internet Explorer gets triggered by another program.

UPDATE 1/13:

This story is getting a lot of attention. Here's a quote from the geek forum Slashdot, from a user nicknamed a_nonamiss:

As someone who regularly uses a computer in front of children as an educational tool, and as an IT professional, this story scares the hell out of me. Although I know how to keep my computer free of spyware, there isn't one person on /. that hasn't been stuck in a random porn loop that they themselves didn't cause. I don't visit bad sites, and I don't open up bad emails, but more than once I have had a porn loop pop up on my PC. Now, after this story, I am seriously faced with the prospect of never using the computer as an educational tool again.

Another Slashdotter, "Bananatree3", points out two related stories:
16-year-old forced into plea bargain after infected computer had child porn images, required to avoid contact with minors
Another man cleared but only after losing custody of his children

UPDATE 2/2:

Computer forensics experts are pitching in to show the problems with the Amero verdict. Here's a quote from one of them (emphasis added):

“ This was a Windows 98 SE machine with IE 5 and an expired antivirus subscription. It hadn't been update since August, and there was no anti-spyware, no pop-up protection, no firewall and no content filters. Regardless of whatever happened, this machine was a machine that should not have been on the Internet. ”

Alexander Eckelberry, president, Sunbelt Software

That's putting it mildly. Any single one of those eight points, by itself, would almost guarantee a problem. Survival time for a machine like that would be measured in minutes. Being on the Internet with that little protection is like living in a rain forest without a roof.

UPDATE 2/7:

According to a new Computerworld column by Steve Bass, the Amero defense expert witness found 27 spyware/adware programs that were already in place before Amero had access to the computer. Mr,Bass links to the public comments of defense witness Herbert Horner. Among those:

This was one of the most frustrating experiences of my career, knowing full well that the person is innocent and not being allowed to provide logical proof.

and

The aforementioned situation can happen to anyone without fail and without notice if there is not adequate firewall, antispyware, antiadware and antivirus protection.

UPDATE 2/26:

The local newspaper, the Norwich Bulletin, has published the trial transcript in the Amero case. Look at the sidebar on the right for links to the sections of the 346-page document.