February 22nd, 2006
180solutions Blows More Smoke Up….
By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
In case you didn’t read it, I posted about 180Solutions still allowing nonconsensual installs as discovered by Ben Edelman, if you want to read their response, and a REALLY funny press release, then check out 180solutions Shuts Down Software Hacker. You know, I can just see Keith Smith, CEO of 180Solutions, standing there with his hands on his hips like Superman after saving the world.
180solutions, Inc., the leading provider of Internet search marketing solutions, today became aware of a publisher with an online name of “Sniper84″ who hacked its software in a way that caused the company’s notification and consent process to be automatically
accepted, denying users the ability to make that choice for themselves.
It was very complicated, he just had to write a script that clicked the finish button, I’m sure it took him a minute at least.
Despite an unprecedented effort by some industry critics to keep secret the critical information that would have led to a quicker shutdown of the fraudulent behavior, the company, through its own policing mechanisms, was able to track down the nefarious actor responsible and shut him down.
They are so wonderful, we’re lucky to have them around!
“No software is ever hack-proof,” said Keith Smith, co-founder and CEO of 180solutions. “Thanks to our recently-developed S3 technology, we were able to identify the rogue publisher, immediately shut down the channel, and implement our re-messaging efforts in which every user involved in this exploit will be required to re-opt in to the download of our programs if they wish to keep the software.”
We Say: I sure hope Ben left the software on his computer so he can let us know for sure if it at least asked him if he really wanted to install their crap “software”. They go on to chastise Ben and everyone who withheld the url from them, I wonder if the people that work at 180 are proud of this and the things they do, or do you think they all enter the building from the back? Oh, and liked this nugget where they admit their fraud department consists of the guy who hit’s the delete key in the accounting department.
To make matters worse, this time, not only was the issue not reported to 180solutions prior to it being made public, but key information, such as the URL visited, was purposely hidden by these “consumer advocates” after the fact, which hindered the company’s fraud
detection process, exposing more consumers to harm.
Added: Ben has indicated on his website, as has Sunbelt, that they have not recieved this re-messaging that was supposed to have taken place, nor have the popups stopped, as 180 said they would when they said they would disable all advertisements to all installs from this publisher.
Ex-180 says:
Hey guy,
Don’t attack 180 employees for the poor management decisions by the execs. Very few people at 180 are proud of everything the company does, but everyone needs to work and they are an employer, and pretty good as employers go. The _employees_ try very hard to do the right thing and put a lot of time and effort into their jobs.
Attacking 180 helps keep them honest (or as close as you’re going to get), but attacking the employees trivializes your entire argument, and in this particular case it’s not an overly strong argument to begin with… Anything can be scripted and defending against it is tricky, as I’m sure you are aware if you code at all. If securing software were always easy no one would have issues with Microsoft. I think in this particular case the only honest criticism of 180 is that it took so long for the S3 stuff to come out.
Keep your attacks to the company as a whole and it’s leadership and you’re opinion will be respected quite a bit more by everyone, even 180 employees.
–thanks,
Ex-180
February 23rd, 2006 at 8:20 am
Jimmy says:
Hey, thanks for your comments, I wasn’t trying to attack 180’s employee’s and I’m sorry if it came off that way, I just know I wouldn’t be to proud of what they are doing and how they are doing it. So, in the future I will not even mention any other employees, I will keep it to the high profile ones who are making all the money. I’m sure most didn’t even know what they did when they first started working there. They made the s3 stuff sound like it was going to end all of this crap, and all it took was a computer generated enter or mouse click. If you’d like to answer some questions, or possible be interviewed on your 180 employment, leave a comment with a good email address I can contact you at.
February 23rd, 2006 at 8:43 am
Ex-180 says:
Jimmy,
That email address will work but I’d certainly like it to remain private.
Ex-180
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:51 am
ReveNews - Jimmy Daniels says:
180 From The Inside Out
I also blog about stuff on RealTechNews.com, the blog of former Cnet editor Alice Hill, and in one post about 180solutions called 180solutions Blows More Smoke Up…. I was told by a former employee of 180solutions to Keep your attacks…
March 31st, 2006 at 8:55 am
zentigger says:
Hey Ex180,
I hear Nike is hiring. You won’t have to take personal blame for exploiting children in the third world. It’s not like you’re actually doing it yourself. Maybe you should start using CFC’s and DDT based pesticides, and don’t forget to whip some niggers in the field too.
Wake up! If the company didn’t have any employees, they couldn’t get away with the crap that they do. Plain and simple. The “I’m just doing it to feed my wife and kids” argument really doesn’t hold a lot of water. Accept responsibility for your own actions.
April 2nd, 2006 at 7:32 pm
» Interview with Ex180, former 180solutions Employee » Blog Archive Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech says:
[…] In a previous post entitled 180solutions Blows More Smoke Up…., a former employee of 180solutions responded in the comments section, he was not too happy as he thought I was attacking the employees and not the management. I have conducted an interview with Ex180 and have posted it on another blog titled 180 From the Inside Out. I will say that the people that do pay attention and do talk about it aren’t overly proud of it. Occasionally a few people will get together and express real anger over the spin put on by management, but that’s on the rare side. Personally, when if someone asked what 180 did after I told them who I worked for, I just said ‘internet advertising’. If it was someone who already knew about 180 I felt like apologizing immediately. Not everyone is like that of course, I remember one guy that sent out a wide distribution email vehemently defending the goal of the company, (it was sent to most if not all of the company). He really believed it. […]
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