Spyware and Adware News

In their “State of Spyware” report for the fourth quarter of 2005, Webroot Software declared that spyware is “the leading threat to safe and secure computing”. Spyware programs are becoming more complex and sophisticated. Some examples of this trend include rootkits and threats designed to exploit flaws in Microsoft Windows programs.

It’s important to have a good anti-spyware and spyware removal program installed on your computer. To protect yourself from these threats make sure the program you use can remove spyware from your computer as well as give you realtime protection against future spyware infections.

I was reading Details magazine this month and saw an interesting statistic in their “Know + Tell” page. The number of computer networks compromised by the anti-theft software embedded on CD’s last year was 568,200. According to the magazine that included government and military sites.

Webroot Spy Sweeper is detecting a new form of Spyware named WatchRight that they classify as a “System Monitor”. Other spyware vendors including Symantec also have this on their rador.

This program can wreak a lot of havoc on your computer if you are not careful. Make sure you have your security patches up to date and the most recent updates to your spyware and anti-virus software.

Here we go again. I just received an email letting me know that my PayPal account has been suspended. Just to make things clear, the email address that I received this on is not even registered with PayPal (laugh).

Here is the message:

Issued on February 3, 2006

We regret to inform you that your online profile with PayPal was not successfully updated and your PayPal account has been temporary suspended. In order to regain access to your account you must update your profile in the next 48 hours or else your PayPal account will be deleted.

To update your PayPal profile click on the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

Regards,
PayPal Security Departament

Copyright © 2006 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. PayPal is located at 2211 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95131.

If you right click on the email in outlook express you will see in the text this line:

href=”http://3343600152/0/?page=https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run” target=_blank>https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

Also while the email is opened, you can do a “show headers”. In outlook express it is “view” - “options”. You will see:

Received: from unknown (HELO host98045.paramount.com) (204.110.114.45)

Doesn’t look like a paypal address to me?

Just in case you didn’t know this, here is something from the paypal site:

• To log in to your PayPal account or access the PayPal website, open a new web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the following: https://www.paypal.com
• Request for Personal Information: If we require information from you, we will notify you in an email and request that you enter the information only after you have safely and securely logged in to your PayPal account.

Don’t be quick to respond or take actions to emails that seem urgent until you properly inspect it.

A lawsuit was filed today in Western Washington US District Court against New York based Secure Computer naming their company President Paul E. Burke and their affiliates that their application “Spyware Cleaner” falsely reports spyware being on a user’s computer. They are accussed of using aggressive marketing pitches to convince a user that they had spyware on their computer. It gets even better because the suit was brought on by the Microsoft Corporation because the company gave the impression that Microsoft endorsed their product.

Washington is one of many states that now has a “Spyware Act”. If the company is found guity, they can be facing penalties of $100,000 per incident, as well as penalties under their “CAN-SPAM” act that can amount to $250.00 per violation.

This once again shows that you must do your homework before purchasing a spyware removal program. Check up on the company by seeing how long they have been in existance and if they have a good history with their customers.

To me one of the biggest scares about spyware are the type that function as system monitor. Japanese authorities today arrested a man by the name of “Atsushi Takewaka” on suspicion of stealing bank account information from unsuspecting people. Atsushi admitted that he had created a spyware program and distributed it on CD’s to companies with the hopes of stealing account information.

Once again, this shows the importance of making sure your computer is protected. We alway recommend that you have an anti spyware program installed, anti-virus program, desktop firewall (preferrably not the one that came with Windows XP) and have the latest security patches installed on your computer.

Their is a market for your personnal information. In a blink of an eye, you could easily become the victim of Identity Theft if you are not careful.

I just read a report today eWeek that surveyed 679 people that felt they were more likely to be a victim of a Cyber-Crime than a Physical crime. This really got me thinking about how popular the internet has become. When I first started out surfing the internet, all websites were in text - no graphics. Back then, you would generally only find techies, research type people and university students online. Now you can purchase a computer for under $300.00 and get on the internet for $14.95. This allows people from all walks of life to get on the internet and surf to their favoriate sites. My wife and I were talking to some friends of ours about the fact that we each have our own computers. In fact we are considered the norm these days since most households have more than 1 computer in it.

I can only imagine where the internet will be in a couple of years from now. Internet connections keep getting faster which will open up the doors for watching your favoriate movie online, or even catching the latest tv shows. With the advancement in technology I do get scared of the growth of potential cyber-crimes that will surely come. It might even be safer to walk the streets than to be online.

In a joint effort between Harvard and Oxford Universities, the web site www.stopbadware.org has been created. It’s being financially backed by Google, Lenovo Group and Sun Microsystems and is going to be (in their words) a “Neighborhood Watch” shining light on adware, spyware, viruses – where and how you get them, and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of badware. It’s going to be an interactive site where visitors can tell their stories about spyware or viruses, and a place where you can go to get the latest information about it.

ISTbar is one of the worst malicous programs that you could ever come into contact with! Just like the other programs, it will display advertisements and hijack your web searches. In addition, it can install a toolbar. But the worse part is that advertisements and hijacked web searches will be pornographic.

ISTbar is usually bundled with free toolbars. In addition, just like the others it can be bundled with free softwares or installed using javascript.

This is another malicous program which can hijack your web searches, permanantly change your internet settings and home page. In addition it can display advertisements and reroute your web searches. Similar to the other malicous programs, it can be found in javascript programs or bundled with free software,