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Does it Seem Like Someone is Looking
Over Your Shoulder?
Of all the threats out there to
computer security, spyware has to be the one with the most recent
impact and its impact continues to rise. Studies by the National
Cyber Security Alliance estimate that spyware can be found on 9
out of 10 personal computers and this is only expected to grow.
Spyware is sneaky and can jump through most anti-virus software
and ignore firewalls—all in a covert manner. It does its real
damage when it starts to work on the target computer slowing it
down because of its processing. Spyware is not quite like worms
and viruses and it does not have the ability to make copies of
itself but it is a serious threat nonetheless
From where does this spyware
originate?
There are three main methods by which
spyware are installed on a computer. A common and popular method
is to embed a spyware component in a freeware or shareware program
that a user downloads to try out. You didn’t really think it was
“free” did you? What happens is the freeware or shareware gets
downloaded and installed by the user and then the embedded spyware
reports information about the user back to its source so as to
facilitate in a targeted marketing campaign. The spyware is
designed to collect information about the user’s personal computer
habits like what websites he or she visits. This information is
then sold to third parties. Software known as P2P file-sharing
programs are reported to also share spyware programs so you would
be wise to scrutinize them.
But how would you know that a
shareware or freeware application would also load spyware on your
computer? The answer is in the end user license agreement that
comes with the shareware or freeware program. But we as users
typically never read these licensing agreements and miss the
clause warning us that a spyware program will get installed as
part of the agreement to use the software for free. Some software
publishers give the user the option to allow or forbid the
introduction of spyware on their computer. So we are prudent to
pay attention to those end user license agreements.
Okay, you say that spyware cannot
possibly affect your computer because you have the security
features set to forbid it. But did you know that spyware can be
designed to deceive you into changing those features and allow its
introduction? A common practice among the creators of spyware
applications is to present to you a popup dialog box in your web
browser asking if you would like to do something such as have your
computer scanned for performance issues. The dialog box has two
buttons to answer the question: Yes or No. However, no matter if
you press Yes or No, the spyware program gets installed. While the
latest versions of Internet Explorer are dealing with this issue,
you should remember to never press the buttons on these popup
dialog buttons. Press only the “X” in the upper-right corner of
the window. Closing the window that way will prevent spyware from
getting installed.
Spyware applications are also known
to be capable of attacking by finding vulnerable areas on a
computer via software or the web browser. This can include web
pages that have code that will run in the browser if a user
navigates there and will “push” the spyware application onto the
client computer.
What is Spyware Capable of?
Spyware is capable of implementing
many tasks of a malicious nature ranging from being a nuisance to
the user to being destructive. Some of the things spyware can do
are:
-
Install more spyware programs on
your system
-
Monitor the keystrokes you are
making
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Theft of passwords, personal data,
credit card numbers, and expiration dates
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Read the cookies stored in your
browser session
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Determine the application programs
on your computer
-
Browse through files on your disk
drive
-
Alter settings on your default web
browser
-
Make your computer run sluggish and
extremely slow
-
Annoy you with popup ad windows
-
Generate new generations of spyware
making it almost impossible to rid yourself of the spyware
programs and cause you to have to restore your system
-
Provide no uninstall capability for
the spyware program
-
Install the spyware program in
obscure and hard to find places
-
Place new ad links on your web
pages where the affiliate settings are not yours but the spyware
programmer’s
Some Available Spyware Programs
What follows are a few of the spyware
programs seen in the computer world. These are the names of the
base spyware programs and many times spyware programmers will
alter them with names of their own. So don’t depend on the name
for recognition
CoolWebSearch.
This collection of spyware programs can be installed by finding
the security holes within Internet Explorer. Traffic and
advertisements are then focused and directed towards
coolwebsearch.com. Pop-up advertisements come with this spyware.
This group of programs also alters the computer’s host file so
that the end result will lookup predetermined files on the
internet
180 Solutions.
This one tells advertisers about the
web sites you like to look at. It can also change the HTTP
requests regarding the affiliate advertisement links associated
with a web site. Because it can alter the advertisement targets,
it gets the earnings from the click and not the proper recipient.
Internet Optimizer.
You also will see this one called
DyFuCa. It is a program that will direct Internet Explorer to
advertisements instead of error pages when there are errors.
HuntBar or Adware.Websearch.
Huntbar is also referred to as WinTools. The products are
distributed by Traffic Syndicate. ActiveX is responsible for the
on-the-fly download from affiliate websites of the products. At
times, the downloads are done from advertisements shown from other
spyware programs. This spyware product shows us how one spyware
program does the installation of other spyware programs. The
programs do things like track web browsing, show advertisements,
and add toolbars to internet explorer.
What is the best way to prevent
spyware?
The first action you can take to keep
spyware off of your system is to get a trustworthy commercial
anti-spyware program. Some product names you will find available
are Ad-Aware by Lavasoft and Windows Anti-spyware. In some cases
the anti-spyware software comes packaged with an anti-virus
program. Anti-virus programs that include anti-spyware are
distributed by companies such as McAfee, Symantec, and Sophos.
These programs work by keeping anti-spyware from getting installed
and removing it if it gets installed. They should have automatic
updates just like anti-virus software.
As was mentioned above, the Internet
Explorer web browser is full of security holes and spyware
programs take advantage of it. Many users have gone to other web
browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. However there are those who are
loyal to Internet Explorer and insist on using it no matter what.
If you are one of these people, make sure that you keep all of the
security patches up to date. Also make sure that you only download
from reputable websites.
What is the last resort?
There are times when a computer gets
so infected with spyware that not even the anti-spyware tools can
clean it. That is when you have to back up your data files and
re-install Windows. Hopefully you will never reach this point.
Article Source:
http://www.spywaretool.com |
