Recently in Spyware, Phishing & Viruses Category

There's been a cosmic shift when it comes to recommendations for anti-spyware software. Until recently, Ad-Aware and Spybot, both free, were the tools at the top of everyone's list for preventing undesirable and unknown programs from taking up permanent residence on your computer. But the commercial spyware software has evolved, and is now taking center stage. In a recent PC World article, Spyware Stoppers (April 2005), Sunbelt Software Counterspy gets a Best Buy. In the PC World test, Counterspy found 85% of spyware, a considerable improvement over Spybot's 54 percent, and Ad-Aware's slightly higher catch rate.

It may not be free, but at $20, at least it's cheap!

Is it paranoia if everyone is truly is out to get you? Because it's safe to say our PCs really are constantly under attack. There are phishing schemes, viruses, keylogging programs, identity theft and computer hijacking to worry about. And then there's spyware. If you spend any time at all on the web, you will likely have at least some spyware on your computer. When EarthLink and Webroot Software surveyed 1 million computers last year, they found an average of almost 28 spyware programs running on each one. A study by AOL reported spyware on 80% of the computers surveyed. So the odds are against us.

What is spyware and how can you avoid it? For spyware basics, read my article, Be Aware of Spyware, originally published on the Informed Librarian.

If you want to avoid spyware, you might want to consider switching to Firefox. According to a PC Magazine Pipeline item, "Make Way for Mozilla," the increase in Firefox users may be partially attributable to the fact that it "does not allow ActiveX programs to run or let so-called trusted sites circumvent security settings," and so avoids the spyware problems that Internet Explorer users experience.

Tom Mighell, on inter alia, notes that Webroot has recently identified CoolWebSearch browser hijacker as one of the top spyware threats. Watch out for this one, and in general avoid downloading toolbars or other browser utilities from unknown web sites. After all, aren't the zillions of toolbars from reliable, well-regarded sources enough for you?

Several articles in the past few weeks have noted that the downloading of music, especially via file sharing services such as Kazaa, is very risky behavior. Reports of spyware contained in illegally copied music files are becoming common and spyware spread in this manner seems particularly resistant to removal. If you want to download music, pay for the privilege via music sites such as iTunes and Musicmatch. (For more information, see the PC World article, "Risk Your PC's Health for a Song?") and "Terminating Spyware with Extreme Prejudice" from the New York Times.)

One more item on the spyware front. Someday soon spyware protection may be built into Windows or Internet Explorer. On December 16th, Microsoft announced the purchase of Giant Company Software of New York, which produces a spyware removal product called Giant AntiSpyware.

Wired News notes that "not all web surfers think spyware is a problem" in the recent article, "Spyware on My Machine? So What?" Apparently, many users just consider spyware to an acceptable trade-off for the ability to use free tools, and aren't concerned about the possible privacy implications. Or maybe they've just given up.

It's not bad enough that we have to worry about spyware, we also have to worry about spyware from companies that claim to protect us against spyware. A recent PC World article, "Poor Defenders," provides the results of test of seven heavily advertised spyware-removal tools and found that none were as good as the free Spybot Search & Destroy, and a couple even installed new spyware.

Included is a picture of Eric L. Howes, a University of Illinois library school student. Eric has analyzed more than 100 anti-spyware utilities for SpywareWarrior.com. He confirms something I've always suspected. The pop-up ads that claim that they have found spyware on your computer, have, in fact, done nothing and found nothing.

There's no question, the Internet is becoming a scary place. Between phishing, viruses and spyware, it's enough to make you want to turn off your computer and hide under the covers. Even experienced users can be fooled as scam artists become more sophisticated. But don't panic, Genie Tyburski offered hints on how to avoid scams and bad information in her program, "The Art of Detection."

Just remember that old saying...if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. As reported by Steve Bass, be on the lookout for the latest spyware scam called Marketscore. Marketscore claims to increase your Internet speed by 100%. Not only does it NOT increase your web browsing speed, it DOES intercept all of your web communication including data entered in web forms such as credit card numbers. Don't even visit the MarketScore web site, as it may install itself on your computer without your knowledge. It's a scary world out there.