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Spyware & Adware

arun — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:03:05 +0000

Spyware and Adware are not only an ever-increasing nuisance for computer users everywhere, but also a booming industry.
According to Webroot Software, Inc., the distribution of online advertisements through spyware and adware has become a whopping $2 billion industry.
The aggressive advertising and spying tactics demonstrated by some of these programs, require an equally aggressive response from a seasoned eradicator. Sunbelt Software is such a company. A leader in Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, Network Security and System
Management tools, they gave consistently remained on the cutting-edge of anti-spyware programming since 1994.

Where Does It Come From?
Typically, spyware originates in three ways. The first and most common way is when the user installs it. In this scenario, spyware is embedded, attached, or bundled with a freeware or shareware program without the user’s knowledge. The user downloads the program to their computer. Once downloaded, the spyware program goes to work collecting data for the spyware author’s personal use or to sell to a third-party. Beware of many P2P file-sharing programs. They are notorious for downloads that posses spyware programs.

What Can Spyware Programs Do?

arun — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:30:54 +0000

Spyware programs can accomplish a multitude of malicious tasks. Some of their deeds are simply annoying for the user; others can become downright aggressive in nature.
Spyware can:

Monitor your keystrokes for reporting purposes.
Scan files located on your hard drive.
Snoop through applications on our desktop.
Install other spyware programs into your computer.
Read your cookies.
Steal credit card numbers, passwords, and other personal information.
Change the default settings on your home page web browser.
Mutate into a second generation of spyware thus making it more difficult to eradicate.
Cause your computer to run slower.

Deliver annoying pop up advertisements.
Add advertising links to web pages for which the author does not get paid.
Instead, payment is directed to the spyware programmer that changed the original affiliate’s settings.
Provide the user with no uninstall option and places itself in unexpected or hidden places within your computer making it difficult to remove.

Open Source Intrusion Detection Systems

arun — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:39:18 +0000

Below are a few of the open source intrusion detection systems:

AIDE(http://sourceforge.net/projects/aide) – Self-described as “AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) is a free replacement for Tripwire. It does the same things as the semi-free Tripwire and more. There are other free replacements available so why build a new one? All the other replacements do not achieve the level of Tripwire. And I wanted a program that would exceed the limitations of Tripwire.”

File System Saint(http://sourceforge.net/projects/fs) – Self-described as, “File System Saint is a lightweight host-based intrusion detection system withprimary focus on speed and ease of use.”

Snort(www.snort.org) – Self-described as “Snort® is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system utilizing a rule-driven language, which combines the benefits of signature, protocol and anomaly based inspection methods. With millions of downloads to date, Snort is the most widely deployed intrusion detection and prevention technology worldwide and has become the de facto standard for the industry.”

Surfing the Web Anonymously

arun — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:41:19 +0000

When you surf the web it is possible to learn information about you even when you don’t want to advertise who you are. This is true even if your system contains no virus or malware software.
Specifically information that is easily available online includes your IP address, your country (and often more location information based on IP address), what computer system you are on, what browser you use, your browser history, and other information. It gets worse.
People can get your computer’s name and even find out your name if your machine supports programs like finger or identd. Also, cookies can track your habits as you move from machine to machine.