Saturday
Is SPYware slowing down your PC ?
New forms of malicious software are slowing down computers at some small businesses—and creating market opportunities for others.
Almost unheard-of only a year or so ago, spyware is now a virulent Internet plague to rival spam and viruses. In many ways it's worse than either; spam is annoying but mostly harmless, and even the worst viruses are fleeting. Spyware, however, lives on, lurking inside machines, tracking users' movements on the web, and sometimes sending them to places they never dreamed existed, much less wanted to visit. Some spyware can track every keystroke, capturing personal information such as credit card numbers and passwords. Other forms divert web searches to paid advertisers' sites or hijack users' homepages, generally making online life miserable.
Most spyware infests a machine without the user's awareness, typically when he visits certain websites or downloads free software. More common, if less damaging, is adware, which generates targeted pop-up ads based on a web surfer's interests. If you visit the site of a national flower shipper, for instance, you might get a pop-up ad from a florist in your area offering a special on Mother's Day roses.
How does spyware find its way onto your machine? It's often secretly bundled with popular file-sharing applications, such as Grokster and Kazaa, or other free software, including computer games and calendar programs. Gaming and porn sites are rich sources of spyware; some programs leap from the web to the PC without the user's knowledge in what are known as drive-by downloads. Webroot quality-assurance manager Chris Stimmel cites one example: A web surfer visits the site of a popular reality TV show and downloads a clip from a recent episode. A piece of spyware sneaks in with the video, changing the browser's homepage while tracking all web activity.
Adware, by contrast, is nominally permission-based. Many users unwittingly agree to download it by clicking on "end-user licensing agreements" for free software programs; vendors correctly assume that hardly anyone actually reads the pages of legal jargon in the agreements. Stimmel advises Webroot clients to avoid downloading any software not made by a major vendor—and to be wary even then.
Makers of spyware are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to get their code onto machines and to camouflage it once it's there. Some programs now propagate via e-mail, like viruses, but deposit spyware that tracks web use and reports back to a central server. What's more, the spyware is not just hiding anymore, notes Stimmel; it's actually starting to fight back.
One bit of malicious code, known as a "watcher file," fights removal by continually reinstalling a dialogue box that badgers users into agreeing to download it. Another transmits two spies that watch each other's back, reinstalling if one gets "shot," or eliminated by SpySweeper. According to Stimmel, one especially devious adware program is advertised as an anti-spyware product like SpySweeper; what it really does is wipe out other adware, install itself, and begin webjacking the user to paid online advertisements.
Thanks to anti-spyware activists, the Federal Trade Commission may soon issue new regulations on hidden downloads. Meanwhile, spyware continues to take new forms.
FREE Scan your PC for Spyware available here
Almost unheard-of only a year or so ago, spyware is now a virulent Internet plague to rival spam and viruses. In many ways it's worse than either; spam is annoying but mostly harmless, and even the worst viruses are fleeting. Spyware, however, lives on, lurking inside machines, tracking users' movements on the web, and sometimes sending them to places they never dreamed existed, much less wanted to visit. Some spyware can track every keystroke, capturing personal information such as credit card numbers and passwords. Other forms divert web searches to paid advertisers' sites or hijack users' homepages, generally making online life miserable.
Most spyware infests a machine without the user's awareness, typically when he visits certain websites or downloads free software. More common, if less damaging, is adware, which generates targeted pop-up ads based on a web surfer's interests. If you visit the site of a national flower shipper, for instance, you might get a pop-up ad from a florist in your area offering a special on Mother's Day roses.
How does spyware find its way onto your machine? It's often secretly bundled with popular file-sharing applications, such as Grokster and Kazaa, or other free software, including computer games and calendar programs. Gaming and porn sites are rich sources of spyware; some programs leap from the web to the PC without the user's knowledge in what are known as drive-by downloads. Webroot quality-assurance manager Chris Stimmel cites one example: A web surfer visits the site of a popular reality TV show and downloads a clip from a recent episode. A piece of spyware sneaks in with the video, changing the browser's homepage while tracking all web activity.
Adware, by contrast, is nominally permission-based. Many users unwittingly agree to download it by clicking on "end-user licensing agreements" for free software programs; vendors correctly assume that hardly anyone actually reads the pages of legal jargon in the agreements. Stimmel advises Webroot clients to avoid downloading any software not made by a major vendor—and to be wary even then.
Makers of spyware are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to get their code onto machines and to camouflage it once it's there. Some programs now propagate via e-mail, like viruses, but deposit spyware that tracks web use and reports back to a central server. What's more, the spyware is not just hiding anymore, notes Stimmel; it's actually starting to fight back.
One bit of malicious code, known as a "watcher file," fights removal by continually reinstalling a dialogue box that badgers users into agreeing to download it. Another transmits two spies that watch each other's back, reinstalling if one gets "shot," or eliminated by SpySweeper. According to Stimmel, one especially devious adware program is advertised as an anti-spyware product like SpySweeper; what it really does is wipe out other adware, install itself, and begin webjacking the user to paid online advertisements.
Thanks to anti-spyware activists, the Federal Trade Commission may soon issue new regulations on hidden downloads. Meanwhile, spyware continues to take new forms.
FREE Scan your PC for Spyware available here
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