Software Information |
Most Dangerous Types of Spyware are on the Rise: How to Choose the Weapon
Bad News - the Threat is Bigger than it Seemed How recently it was - when even many journalists thought that spyware gathers mostly information to be used for targeted advertising. Definitions like "spyware, a.k.a. adware, is?" were pretty common in articles. Keyloggers and system monitors were mentioned as dangerous, but relatively rare. Until the Spy Audit survey made by ISP Earthlink and Webroot Software clearly showed - they are not rare at all. The results of the survey are here: http://www.earthlink.net/spyaudit/press/ and http://www.earthlink.net/about/press/pr_spyauditsurvey/ Reading them will be time well-spent for everybody who uses Internet and at least sometimes deals with information valuable enough to be stolen; in fact, it means just everybody. "Industry experts suggest that these types of programs [i.e. spyware in general] may reside on up to 90 percent of all Internet-connected computers" - that's the exact quote. Considering the number of computers scanned during this survey (which lasted for a whole year 2004), there is nothing left but to come to the conclusion - it must be true to fact. Despite the fact that one of the Spy Audit authors is an anti-spyware vendor, there is no doubt that the results are trustworthy - there has been more than 4.6 million system scans made in 2004. It seems that the results of the survey might be like the bolt from the blue even for the specialists, not to mention general public. 16.48% of all scanned consumer PCs in 2004 had a system monitor installed. It means that 16.48% of these users were definitely under monitoring (who monitors them - that's another question). 16.69% had a Trojan horse program, and this is a troubling sign, too - it is a keylogging module that Trojans often have inside. "Information-stealing Trojan" in descriptions most often means "keylogger-containing Trojan". Both figures give us an overwhelming 33.17% PCs contaminated with some program with information stealing capability. Even if not all these Trojans were information-stealing ones, the situation is distressing anyway. Schools of Phish and Herds of Trojan Horses "Traditional" phishing and spoofing (sending emails linked to a bogus bank Web site and waiting for unwitting customers) are, unfortunately, not new phenomena. It is a modernized two-stage scam which includes contaminating the victim's machine with a keylogger-containing Trojan horse program that is spreading like a wildfire now. This scheme is without doubt much more dangerous; in this case the victim needn't follow the link in the email. Trojan horse lurks in the background until the victim types particular titles or URLs into his browser. Once the user visits one of a number of banking Web sites the malicious code is triggered into action, capturing passwords and taking screenshots. Then the information is sent to remote hackers who can use it to break into the bank account and steal money. There were several outbreaks in activity of such information-stealing Trojans which targeted bank customers in 2004. Actually, such a scam was first used in Brazil - when the notorious Trojan named Troj/Banker-AJ appeared, experts recalled that the security firm Sophos had warned earlier in 2004 about criminals who used similar techniques to break into Brazilian online bank accounts. Crooks may use pretty ingenious and "efficient"(if such a word could be appropriate for this activity) techniques to place the Trojan into users' PCs - letters can be mimicking CNN news alerts, or offering to reserve the very latest book about Harry Potter in the series before it is published in July. Who knows what will they invent next? Looking for Solutions to the Problem In 2004 it become as clear as day to anyone - from being not much more than a nuisance for PC users, spyware turned into one of the major threats to information security. Since the Internet has become a part of daily life and business, rapid growth of such kinds of cybercrime as identity theft and phishing endanger the whole society. Some types of spyware, namely software capable of stealing valuable information (like passwords, SSNs), certainly facilitate these crimes. Software vendors by all means are responding to the threat to meet the enormous demand for anti-spyware protection. Several big anti-virus vendors, such as Norton and McAfee, have already begun providing anti-spyware protection as well. Microsoft also joined the anti-spyware market this year (and has already become a target for the malicious Trojan called Bankash-A; fortunately, no serious damages reported so far). Symantec plans to announce new features to fight spyware in some of its enterprise antivirus and intrusion prevention products. Besides, there also are - literally - hundreds of stand-alone anti-spyware developers and vendors. The number of anti-spyware software they all develop, promote and sell is constantly growing - and will grow in future. So will the profits. According to predictions from the market advisory firm IDC, the market for anti-spyware solutions is expected to boom in the next few years. Anti-spyware software revenues will soar from US$12 million in 2003 to $305 million in 2008. But what about end users - are they going to benefit from such a variety of anti-spyware solutions available at the market? Or will they just feel bewildered and lost in all this mass of ads offering instant relief from nasty and dangerous spyware? It looks like most people are already confused because advertising is pretty much alike - how to distinguish a high-quality product from some hit-or-miss software developers fabricated in haste just to get quick profit? What a user can (actually must) do is to know what exactly he or she is buying or installing for free. Here are several simple common-sense tips: The first step is to visit the site of the company that produces this product. Look it through. Read "about us" section. How long does this company exist? Ignore "testimonials" - there is no guarantee that it wasn't the company's PR manager who wrote them. It would be better to search, say, Google groups for opinions. A good old background check will also do a lot of good. It takes some time, though - but peace of mind later is worth half an hour's browsing the Web now. The simplest way is to search for the product's name along with such words like "installs", "spyware", "adware", "popups", etc. There are even lists of suspicious, low-performing, or adware-installing products. See, for example, http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm - an ample list of anti-spyware you'd better not buy. By the way, the whole this site is worth studying thoroughly. The fact that you are not a tech person doesn't mean you can afford not knowing the basic principles these products are based on. What a user can expect from an anti-spy product and what is simply impossible? Most anti-spyware products apply signature databases, i.e. rely on simple pattern-matching technique. Detecting spy software is the crucial step of the whole process - all the protection depends on whether the anti-spy software is able to detect as many malicious programs as possible. The bigger the database is and the more often it is updated, the more reliable protection the product will provide. Signature base, which most anti-spy products depend on, is actually the "list" of signatures - small pieces of spy programs' codes. Anti-virus or anti-spy program actually scans the system and compares its codes with those in signature bases. So, in this case only the spies whose signatures already are in the base will be detected and eventually "caught". As long as anti-spy software is regularly updated and the system doesn't come across some unknown spy product, everything is all right. The problem is that there is good deal of people capable of creating something brand-new, unknown to anti-spyware developers. The period of time when a new spy already exists, but the updates have not been released yet, is the very time when cybercriminals make their biggest profits. The advantage of signature base analysis is that programs based on this method of detection can be of wider range - it is possible to include signatures from different types of spyware and adware into a single database. However, regular release of updates for these bases becomes crucial. If the developer fails to do it properly and on time, there is a considerable risk for such a program to become "Jack of all trades and a master of none." The conclusion is simple - if a product applies signature database, it's better to choose anti-spyware with the biggest and most frequently updated base. Don't expect absolute protection - with this technique it is simply unattainable. But in case of information-stealing programs, like keyloggers or keylogging-containing Trojans, a single "overlooked" program may mean lost valuable data. Since signature analysis can't ensure protection against constantly appearing brand-new keyloggers, blocking the very process of keylogging would be better. Such a technology already exists, and it may be the next step towards more reliable protection against the most malicious types of spy programs. Alexandra Gamanenko currently works at Raytown Corporation, LLC - the independent software developing company, which created the technology capable of blocking the very process of keylogging. Visit its website: http://www.anti-keyloggers.com
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
Microsoft Great Plains: Annual Enhancement Program - How To Be Re-Enrolled Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is mid and even corporate market ERP and as being relatively complex and difficult to do self-support in-house, Microsoft Business Solutions requires you first to have so-called VAR of record, or your MBS partner and second - pay annual enhancement program, which is typically 16% of you software price list. Enhancement program allows you to get new version of the product as well as purchase and add new modules you might need. Microsoft Great Plains Implementation for Large Corporation - Overview for VP IT Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was historically designed to serve mid-market first and then with addition and acquisition of new modules - Great Plains Dynamics architects planned to enter into corporate market. When Microsoft SQL Server took its place as relatively reliable and stable database platform, Great Plains gained scalability. Marketing Your WinRunner Team It won't matter how effective your WinRunner Team is if no-one outside your immediate organization knows about your accomplishments. For this reason, marketing your WinRunner Team is vital to your success. How to Make Attractive and Effective PowerPoint Presentations Microsoft PowerPoint has dramatically changed the way in which academic and business presentations are made. This article outlines few tips on making more effective and attractive PowerPoint presentations. Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET Application Navision Software was purchased by Microsoft and now it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions together with Microsoft Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, Microsoft Retail Management System and Microsoft CRM. Navision has extremely strong position on mid-size European and US markets, plus it has excellent manufacturing solution. Software Companies: Generate New Revenue Streams and Decrease Costs with Custom e-Learning Content It's no secret that software companies operate in a very competitive space where rivalry is increasingly fierce and where profit margins can be razor thin. New, smaller software companies are sprouting up each month and the leading software companies continually make strong advancements forward leveraging massive cash flow reserves. Spyware - The Internet Devil Of Our Times! Spyware and Adware infest over 90 percent of computers in use today. Internet linked computers has made it easy for spybots, adware, and trojans to infiltrate and compromise online privacy. Microsoft CRM or Siebel Siebel is traditional CRM market leader, however and mostly due to recession 200-2003, Siebel lost sizable portion of CRM market to new tiger, such as Microsoft CRM. Microsoft CRM s recent (2001) CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt top get market share from traditional vendors: Siebel, Oracle, Onyx. Groupware as a Document Manager: Collaboration Series #3 This article is the third of a series of articles exploring specific aspects of groupware. The brief informational articles in this series discuss some of the technologies associated with groupware, as well as some of the characteristics of groupware. Microsoft Navision and Crystal Reports - An Overview Microsoft Business Solutions - Navision is an integrated solution for small and midsize companies looking to expand their business operations without much interruption to its existing processes. Microsoft Navision enables businesses to alter as much or as little of its existing system, integrate add-ons and vertical segments of its development. Microsoft CRM Conversation Gateway: VoIP - Implementation & Customization Microsoft CRM is winning market share step-by-step from such the traditional CRM providers as Siebel, Saleslogix. In this article we'll show Microsoft Business Solutions CRM potential in the VoIP direction. Removing Incoming Email in MS Exchange, C# Example The purpose of one of our projects was MS Exchange handler for processing incoming email.The basic source of knowledge was this article "Developing Managed Event Sinks/Hooks for Exchange Server Store using C#" by Logu Krishnan, published to the address http://www. Free PDF Publishing Software In a previous article, I wrote about OpenOffice which an excellent suite of Free Office software which is in the Public Domain.What I did not know is that the Writer (word processing) program creates PDF files too. Microsoft CRM Custom Design & Development: SDK, C#, SQL, Exchange, Integration, Crystal Reports Microsoft CRM is new player on the CRM software market. The whole conception behind CRM seems to be different. Microsoft Navision Customization and Reporting - Tips For Programmer/IT Specialist C/SIDE (Client/Server Integrated Development Environment) - The core of Navision is the C/SIDE. C/SIDE is the foundation for all the business management functionality of Navision. Review on QuarkXpress 6.0 After almost two decades of existence, Quark has become the basic building block of any print designer's toolkit. It has deservedly gained a reputation for reliable printing, offering consistent and dependable output that prevents costly mistakes. IT Strategy for Midsize Business: Microsoft vs. Java, Great Plains & CRM Midsize business or non-profit organization should decide if one-vendor solution would be appropriate and the associated risk acceptable. In our opinion, balancing the risk of one-vendor-approach is not economically feasible and should be avoided. International Support - Microsoft Great Plains VAR/Partner Selection - Overview for V.P. IT Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. It seems to be goof solution for mid-size and even large multinational corporation with Headquarters in US and branches Worldwide. Accounts Payable: A Powerful Document Management and Workflow Solution Accounts payable is just one area of office management where problems arise because of the sheer complexity of transactions, and the vast amount of paperwork that is generated.A disproportionate amount of time and administrative resources is consumed just getting invoices approved for payment. Can You Calculate Complex Financial Calculations? Are you a whiz at calculating financial information? Not the easy personal stuff, like figuring out your monthly mortgage based on a fixed interest rate for x number of years, or how much money you have available each month after all your bills are paid. (You can probably use your fingers to figure that one out!)But the hard stuff, you know, the things you need to know when you're running a small business. |
home | site map | contact us |