SOUTHFIELD – So you?ve bought a brand new computer, or maybe you?ve had an old faithful one for years. You?ve done all the right things from a security perspective: you have antivirus and a personal firewall, and you keep them up-to-date. Spam is becoming a pain, so you?re thinking about maybe filtering that too. You use the PC for email, browsing the Web, a little shopping or even Internet banking perhaps? Your children may use it for games or homework, and if you?re really getting the full value, you?re also storing picture and using some Internet Chat software. But lately, it?s started to behave badly or not as well as it once did. What?s wrong with your PC? Spyware could be one answer.
Spyware is not only affecting your Internet and PC experience, but also in the worst cases, could be threatening your privacy, your identity or even your bank account. Spyware is the latest phenomenon in a long line of Internet-borne threats to jeopardize the Internet and our enjoyment and use of it. We?ve seen early viruses that could destroy software or even, in some radical cases, hardware. Worms were next with names like CodeRed, Nimda, Bagel, Netsky and MyDoom, and they continue.
Stories of hackers breaking into bank systems and companies? networks and even hijacking home PCs abound. It seemed, for a while, that the bad guys or black hats had exhausted their bag of tricks. Not so anymore; now there is Spyware too.
Spyware isn?t something, for the most part, that has outbreaks and epidemics. Instead, it has grown quickly and powerfully over the Internet and now pervades it completely. Simply put, Spyware is any computer program or software intended to aid an unauthorized person (or more commonly a company) outside the knowledge of the user or owner ? in other words, use your PC against your will.
What does Spyware do? Well, it normally transmits personal information or privileged information regarding the computer user, regarding the use of the computer or of information stored on the computer. This means that Spyware can capture key strokes right from the keyboard, sending passwords straight out to people you least want to have them. It can also transmit screen shots, files, browsing patterns and more. Spyware also stretches further and can alter your experience of your computer and the Internet by redirecting your home page, searches, presenting ads, and more. Since it?s often poorly written, it can also slow down your computer or make it nearly unusable for what you bought it to do: email, Web browsing, work, games, pictures and more.
Spyware is part of an entirely new breed of Internet threat: it is a commercially motivated threat. This new threat began with Spam emails or emails that you didn?t solicit. Spam is successful because somewhere out there someone opens Spam email and thinks, ?hey, that?s great, I just have to buy one.? Since Spam is cheap to produce, if only a few people respond to a small number of Spam emails out of millions, it?s making money for the Spamers. The same is true and more for Spyware writers. They do this because they make money at it. Spyware is a profitable business.
Unlike the majority of virus writers and hackers, Spyware writers form into software groups and companies. They get together and market their services to legitimate businesses and often find legal ways of putting their nefarious software on to your computer. How can you get infected? Spyware spreads by some of the most subtle means. The most common way to catch it is with a drive by infection: as you browse a Web site that is part of the Spyware networks, mobile code infects your PC. Other common mechanisms include installs for free or commercial software bundled with the install, via email attachment, peer to peer file swapping and more. For the most part, Spyware isn?t life-or-death for your computer, although it can expose some very valuable things. However, it can almost feel like death by a thousand stings for your computer as Spyware can bog down your PC and make it virtually unusable.
Spyware is unlike anything that has come before, although it shares a lot in common with its Internet predecessors. Many of the tricks, tools and components are identical to hacker techniques and tricks. The motivations are similar to Spam producers, being basically financial in nature. The methods of infection are similar to many viruses that we have seen over the year. However, this is a fundamentally new threat calling for new defenses and techniques. With viruses, there are known ways to look and things to search for to protect a PC, and viruses continue to be a consistent Internet threat. But Spyware calls for new techniques because it behaves exactly like other forms of legitimate software in many cases. For example, key logging, which is a form of Spyware that captures key strokes on your PC, may sound instantly and inherently bad; but it may not be. Some support applications designed to help you actually exhibit the same behavior as the bad software out there. The key here is in the intent of the software writers and your knowledge and will over how your PC is used.
If you think you might have Spyware, don?t panic. It?s perfectly normal even though it threatens you. Remember, your PC is not on the verge of dying immediately as it might be with some viruses out there (and if you don?t have antivirus software, now is the time to make sure you get some to avoid that fate.). Instead, it?s time to do a calm, rational scan of your PC using some of the free tools on the Internet and to consider what software to purchase. There are many choices.
Keep in mind what?s at stake: your files, your banking, your identity, and your PC performance and behavior. Nearly 90 percent of computers on the Internet have some form of Spyware on them, and even the newest PC can become infected within minutes of being turned on for the first time by simply browsing a few infection-spreading Websites. Remember that Spyware is so prolific because it makes money, and that money comes from normal Internet users like us. Take control of your PC and avoid this newest breed of Internet threat.
Computer Associates provides a free ?PestScan? along with links to its consumer eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware product at Computer Associates
Sam Curry is vice president eTrust Security Management for Computer Associates International
