Friday, March 05, 2004
Spyware! My Computer Thinks for Me
Ad-aware does as well as an automated tool can do (hopefully), but it cannot kill the latest spyware variant, the automatic cloning program. These programs are scheduled to make multiple copies of themselves with different names and be deposited in different directories and then look out for each other. Should any one of them disappear, the others will quickly clone and replace the missing file and launch it again. Further, they incessantly monitor Windows Registry activity, and as soon as their 'autostart' (in one of the 'Run' keys) is removed, they will immediately replace it. As Ad-aware cannot deal with spyware that fights back like this, Ad-aware cannot defeat them.
So on Slashdot people are talking about Spyware/Adware/Malware. trust me when I say, you may not know what I’m talking about, but if you have a Windows-based PC, and use Internet Explorer than you have been affected. Well, unless you don’t use the internet.
Basically, spyware/adware/malware are applications, widgets, javascripts, and cookies that purpose include tracking your web browsing habits and send information back to advertisers. Now some do more than this—they may increase the number of pop-up ads you see, hijack your web browser, track your keystrokes, or more.
Typically what happens, is a user starts noticing their computer is slower than normal. They may also notice a slew of pop-ups, ads, or their browser just refuses to open anymore. If you have applications like Precision Time, Gator, GAIN, you have spyware/adware on your computer. Its practically unavoidable (on the PC). Launching Internet Explorer and hitting almost any website besides Google or Apple, will launch a slew of pop-up windows, and pull ads from various servers. These ads may contain scripts that take advanatage of Explorer’s acceptance of ActiveX controls, and before you can click, software has ben downloaded and installed on your machine. Your culpability is limited to using Internet Explorer (this article could also be titled: “Internet Explorer Must Die.")
But what made me write this little rant, really isn’t your garden variety spyware/adware. Its a new, more aggressive form of spyware which automatically clones itself. Hence the beginning quote. I find spyware that fights back against its removal, the equivalent of a thief that comes into your house, while your their and tries to convience you that its within their right to steal your electronics, because its what they do for a living.
I’ve come across the new spyware, and even for a person with technical skill, its a pain in a$$ to remove. Luckily SpySweeper and SpyBot are helpful in this area, otherwise it might be the ever helpful reformat the hard drive.
Obviously, I don’t use a PC at home. A confirm Apple user, with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther running on my 15” PowerBook. But when you are managing multiple hundreds of computers for ten to twenty clients, who’ve all standardize around Windows, the fact that your computer remains blissful unaffected, isn’t always a comfort. Well, maybe its not comfort enough.
There’s this one staff member at a unnamed client, who weekly has a new spyware application installed on her machine. These are the people who I religate to my dreams of a semi-computer literate society. Those who meet the basic standards get a computer, those who don’t get pen and paper (legal line of course, I’m not cruel). She’s back to unlined drawing paper, and a number 2 pencil.
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