Spyware – An Addendum to the
original White Paper on Privacy
Spyware Site Testing Software
Spyware as defined in the original White Paper is hideous
software that attaches itself to your machine and spies on you. (Please see the original Spyware section of this paper for details on how spyware works).
Using McAfee Inc’s SiteAdviser product, McAffe has recently
released a study that links the epidemic of spyware, adware (also known as malware) and
viruses to search engines.
The SiteAdvisor
estimates that “based on average usage patterns a consumer will click through
to an unsafe site from a search engine once every 15 days”. Free screensaver sites topped the list of
search results that expose the user to risk at 57% of results found.
The current list of “risky
searches” that could expose the user’s computer to a virus are:
Percentage of Google search results where the first
five results pages link to sites that could expose users to spyware:
|
Free screensavers |
64% |
|
Bearshare |
57% |
|
Screensavers |
55% |
|
Winmx |
51% |
|
Limewire |
46% |
|
Download yahoo messenger |
44% |
|
Free ringtones |
38% |
|
D41 |
38% |
|
Ares |
37% |
Source: SiteAdviser
The major search engines companies
are looking for ways to protect the user.
Both Google and Microsoft responded to the study stating that they are
continuously developing software tools to protect their user base from malware and viruses.
The introduction of software
to “test” a site for the user is becoming the new trend in the industry. Not
only do we know have firewalls and software to search and destroy malware, but now the consumer is being offered tools that
will evaluate a website for safety. McAfee’s SiteAdviser
is an example of this new tool.
Top Spyware
Removal Software:
The Spyware
Removers Review has done a side by side comparison of spyware
removal software and their top five choices are:
Another comparison of anti
virus software was done by PC World Magazine and they listed their top ten
choices:
The PC World comparison table
allows the customer to do a side by side comparison of these products.
Another new development is
software that tests the spyware software that you are
purchasing.
An Anti-Spyware
Coalition (ASC) has been formed partnering the major spyware
software vendors and ICSA
Labs. Their purpose it to
standardize anti spyware software so that testing may
be done to determine its effectiveness.
They have recently developed
an Anti-Spyware Testing Best Practice document that they describe
as addressing:
“A wide variety of consumer,
shareware, and business-class anti-spyware products
are available in the marketplace today. However, unlike the anti-virus space,
where vendors have reached agreement on certain standards, and share sample
collections in order to provide the broadest possible protection to their
customers, collaboration is more complex in the anti-spyware
space. Spyware programs tend to have an increased
number of registry entries, files, self-protection mechanisms, and other tools
that they employ. While vendors can determine which of these entries can safely
be removed, and which should be part of a test suite, it is generally too
complex for the end-user. This makes it difficult for customers wanting to
evaluate and compare anti-spyware products on their
own to do so.”
A company called Intelguardians Network Intelligence LLC has developed
a software package called Spycar which tests your anti spyware software by pretending
to be malware.
Spycar runs twenty-five small programs that
perform activities such as changing the computers registry so that certain
files launch on boot, adding to your favorites list in IE or adding a file to
your machine. This activity tests to see
if the malware software is detecting the changes and
doing its job. Spycar
then removes all the changes it made returning your computer to its original
state.
Conclusion
The ‘keepers of the gate’ or
the anti virus and anti spyware companies are making
efforts to not only keep up or ahead of the hackers, but also to standardize
their industry and validate that the products they offer are doing the job
stated.
This industry is a growing
one thanks to the hacker and spyware authors. McAffes revenues
topped $253.3 million in December 2005 marking a 4% growth over the previous
quarter. Microsoft’s entry into this
industry brings another major player to the table providing consumers with yet
another vendor to choose from.
Sources:
ICSALabs: http://www.icsalabs.com/icsa/icsahome.php
The Wall Street
Journal: https://www.wsj.com
SpywareTesting.org: http://www.spywaretesting.org/metadot/index.pl
SpywareRemoversReview: http://www.spywareremoversreview.com
PC World Magazine: http://www.pcworld.com/
Other Links:
United States Senate
site re: Active Legislation (http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/b_three_sections_with_teasers/active_leg_page.htm)