You have been faithfully going out to the Microsoft Windows Update site and downloading the latest hotfixes and service packs for your operating system and software. You have the latest version of Anti-Virus software installed and it is scheduled to check for updates daily. You have made sure that you don't have any open shares. You have verified all of your passwords are not easy to guess and can't be found in a dictionary.

Now you can sit back and relax because there is nothing that can get to your PC now! WRONG!!!! Remember that web site you visited yesterday to see what the weather was going to be like for the weekend? Remember those annoying web pages that popped up that you promptly closed that offered you riches beyond your wildest dreams? You may have just fallen prey to SpyWare, MalWare, or AdWare!

Those seemingly innocent little applications you downloaded and web pages you visit can be silently downloading little bits of code and text that will be used by advertisement companies and others to track where you have been on the web and provide information about you and your computer. These applications also take up valuable computer storage and memory resources. Anti-virus products will not protect you from a vast majority of these kinds of attacks. In some cases these programs or utilities can be used for legitimate applications such as troubleshooting problems and monitoring systems so they are not always identified as harmful to your computer.

Go to this link for a good evaluation of SpyWare products.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1524302,00.asp

11 Signs of Spyware
Neil J. Rubenking
March 2, 2004

1. You find a new finger-size hardware device connected between your keyboard cable's plug and the corresponding socket on the back of your computer. Or maybe someone recently offered you "a better keyboard."


2. Your phone bill includes expensive calls to 900 numbers that you never made—probably at an outrageous per-minute rate.


3. You enter a search term in Internet Explorer's address bar and press Enter to start the search. Instead of your usual search site, an unfamiliar site handles the search.


4. Your antispyware program or another protective program stops working correctly. It may warn you that certain necessary support files are missing, but if you restore the files they go missing again. It may appear to launch normally and then spontaneously shut down, or it may simply crash whenever you try to run it.


5. A new item appears in your Favorites list without your putting it there. No matter how many times you delete it, the item always reappears later.


6. Your system runs noticeably slower than it did before. If you're a Windows 2000/XP user, launching the Task Manager and clicking the Processes tab reveals that an unfamiliar process is using nearly 100 percent of available CPU cycles.


7. At a time when you're not doing anything online, the send or receive lights on your dial-up or broadband modem blink just as wildly as when you're downloading a file or surfing the Web. Or the network/modem icon in your system tray flashes rapidly even when you're not using the connection.


8. A search toolbar or other browser toolbar appears even though you didn't request or install it. Your attempts to remove it fail, or it comes back after removal.


9. You get pop-up advertisements when your browser is not running or when your system is not even connected to the Internet, or you get pop-up ads that address you by name.


10. When you start your browser, the home page has changed to something undesirable. You change it back manually, but before long you find that it has changed back again.


11. And the final sign is: Everything appears to be normal. The most devious spyware doesn't leave traces you'd notice, so scan your system anyway.

Anti-virus products focus on viruses, you will need something that can find other sorts of computer threats such as: Annoyance, ANSI Bomb, AOL Pest, Carding, DDoS, Disassembler, Dropper, Exploit, Hostile ActiveX, Hostile Java, IRC War, Key Logger, Loader, Mailbomber, NT Cracking, NT Security Scanner, Nuker, Password Capture, Password Cracker, Password Cracking Word List, Phreaking Tool, Port Scanner, Probe Tool, RAT, Ripper, Sniffer, Spoofer, Spyware, Trojan, Trojan Creation Tool, Virus Creation Tool, War Dialer, and Worm.

How do I detect these things and remove them or prevent them from attacking in the first place? You can limit the amount of SpyWare and MalWare software by limiting your subscription to lists and avoid unnecessary browsing of web sites. You can disable cookies on your browser, but this can affect some legitimate web sites from working properly. You can purchase third party products such as Spybot-S&D, Pest Patrol, X-Cleaner, AD-aware, Spy Sweeper, System Detective and others.

For instructions on installing, configuring and scanning with SpyBot Search & Destroy, Ad-aware SE and Windows Defender, go here.

For information on & installing LANdesk, go here.

If you find Key Logger software installed on your machine contact the HelpDesk immediately at (406) 994-1777 or email them at opermail@montana.edu also we have been asked to report this to the Great Falls office of the Secret Service at your earliest convenience. Their office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm and the telephone number is (406) 452-8515.

If you are having trouble with this page...you probably can't read this and any contact information I put here would be useless.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 2/20/2007