I’ve talked about Antivirus software as an essential. Today we’re going to look at Antispyware software. There is a difference. By definition a virus is a piece of software that infects other files or copies itself. A worm is a virus that spreads without user intervention. (From one open network port to another for instance.) Spyware is not necessarily in either category. Spyware is the name given to software that tracks online behavior, some may track online searches, some may be more invasive and track anything typed in to the computer!
Tag: antispyware
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More wolves in sheeps clothing – rogue or suspect antispyware
(or for that matter, rogue or suspect antivirus.) What’s fascinating about this category is most of these products either use security vulnerabilities to get into a system, or merely convince a person browsing the web that they’re the right tool for the job. Kind of like virtual con-men in a sense…. Anyway… Spyware Confidential has a listing of the top 10 rogue/suspect antispyware programs. Some familiar names are mentioned…
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Another interesting spyaxe note
Incidents.org has a note on a recently noted trojan.spaxe.exe, that when on a system will mimic the windows notification dialogue “bubble” near the system tray with the following text.
“Your computer is infected!
Windows has detected spyware infection.It is recommended to use special antispyware tools to prevent data loss.
Windows will now download and install the most up-to-date antispyware for you.Click here to protect your computer from spyware.”
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Most home pc users lacking on PC security…
Surprise!!… ummm wait, no… This article has come out while I’ve been in the midst of cleaning up a Windows ME pc that has been “0\/\/ned” (owned/controlled…) by someone other than the owner for a bit over 15 months. The system had NO antivirus, no firewall (no antispyware) and used dialup for internet. (That much said, this is probably the most infected dialup system I’ve seen… 30-100 virii, 230+spyware remnants/etc.) Anyway…. the article from cnet news claims that a recent survey found 81% of home pc users lacked either
at least one of three types of critical security–a firewall, updated antivirus software or anti-spyware protection
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Sneaky TorrentSpy bundling…
Sunbeltblog is talking about torrentspy, which has licensed their own version of Rufus, a bittorrent client. All well and good, but… they’ve decided to bundle WhenU SaveNow *(adware) with THEIR version of Rufus. This has ticked off the writers of Rufus among others.
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Microsoft taking a name…
Slashdot has an interesting story up about the background of the selection of Windows Defender. It seems that an Australian software developer had a product called Windows Defender which protected Windows users from malicious websites. Well a short while back he got a call from lawyers associated with Microsoft about trademark infringement over the use of Windows. As part of the deal he would quit using that name and turn over all rights to that name to Microsoft.