Bugged by spyware?

Websense Inc

According to a recent survey conducted by UKsecurity consultancy PanSec, more than 90% of all company PCs are infected with so-called ."spyware". This is the term given to software that gets installed without the user's permission and which covertly gathers and transmits data about the usage of the machine.

A report by IT market analysts The Aberdeen Group claims there are more than 7.000 spyware programs in existence right now, running on millions of corporate and personal computers. No computer linked to the Internet is immune. A spyware program isnt technically a virus so most antivirus scanners don't attempt to stop it. And spyware doesn't exploit bugs in Windows: so installing all the latest Microsoft security patches can't prevent it either.

No computer linked to the Internet is immune. A spyware program isnt technically a virus so most antivirus scanners don't attempt to stop it. And spyware doesn't exploit bugs in Windows, so installing all the latest Microsoft security patches can't prevent it either. Spyware gets into a PC by being bundled with legitimate products. If you download and install any of the best-known file sharing applications, for example, you have no choice but to accept the spyware that it also installs and ~ which the free services are often funded.

Once installed, spyware starts monitoring the way that the computer is used and feeding back the information to the Website operators who sponsored the program's distribution. The site operators want to understand precisely how a visitor travels to their site, and which menu options he or she clicks on. They want to know which other sites are visited, for how long at what time of day, and which types of adverts get clicked. They' want to know which applications are installed on the victim's computer, and where he or she is based (which can be gathered from the user's email address or the phone number programmed into the modem).

The spyware distributors then use all this information to present your staff with adverts for products that they' hope you are most likely to buy. Also the database of usage statistics also gets sold to other marketing companies and spammers. But does spy-ware really matter? What does it matter if everyone knows the intimate details of your staffs surfing or shopping habits? Not only is it an invasion of privacy, it can also be a security risl Do you really want a collection of large marketing organisations to know everything for which your employees use the Internet? For example, if staff are researching new products or sending emails to potential clients, is it really acceptable for details &such activity to he disclosed to all and sundry?

Poorly written spyware programs can, and often do, cause PC crashes and network slowdowns. Sending all this data back to the database also takes time and consumes network bandwidth, thus slowing down your Web surfing and emailing (and costing you money, if you're paying for network bandwidth according to total or peak usage).

Spyware can cost you serious money, too. In the US recently, an investment broker lost 540,000 after installing what he thought was a market analysis program but which turned out to be a program transmitting his account login details to hackers.

Spyware is already a big problem around the world. In Europe, 1 in 3 companies has detected spyware on its network. The typical spyware program is prolific, typically transmitting 300 items of information, totalling some 1 MB of data from each infected machine every day. So which software includes spyware? Among the most prolific offenders are the file sharing and swapping sites such as Kazaa which are used by millions of Interact users to exchange files such as music and videos.

This software also includes a number of spyware programs which monitor your use of the system and help the company present you with targeted advertising in order to finance the free service.

At present, the legal situation regarding installing spyware without the computer user's Permission is a grey area. There is, though, a move afoot in the US to force software providers to declare up-front if installing their program will also install spyware. Many programs do already do this, but the details are buried in the small pnnt of a long, complicated online licence agreement that most people agree to with a single click and without bothering to read. If you're worried about spyware on your PCs, here are our top lips for dealing with the problem.

* Software authors often go to considerable lengths to hide the fact that their products include spyware, so it may not be immediately obvious whether theres any on your PC. Check the small print of the licence agreement before installing any freeware or shareware.

* Get into the habit of uninstalling any software that you don't regularly use.

* Some of the most common spyware applications include Gator (also known as GAIN), BonziBUDDY and Comet Cursor, each of which is included with many freeware and shareware products. If these products are mentioned within any of the, programss you use, your computer is probably infected with at least one spyware tool.

* Spyware programs aren't viruses, so installing antivirus software doesn't fully protect you from spyware.

* Many spyware programs communicate through the same Interact port (80) as general Web traffic, thus making it very difficult to block data transmission using a firewall.

* Chcck out the privacy policy on the web sites of the software you use, to find out what they use the collected information for.

* If you are responsible for IT in a corporate environment, seriously consider the use of products such as Websense Enterprise (www.websense.com) which automatically prevents users from downloading and installing programs which contain spyware. It will also ensure that any spyware application already installed on the user's PC is unable to transmit confidential information. www.websense.com