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| Spyware is worse than most PC users think |
Extracted from The Star Online |
1 Mar 2006 |
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KUALA LUMPUR: It is worrying that many computer users still seem to be ignorant of spyware, said a security solutions vendor. Andrew J. Lee, chief technology officer of security solutions company Eset Software, said many users are just too trusting when they are at their PCs.
"They are downloading spyware without knowing it because they are duped by the claims of online ads," he said. He said the problem has been going on for the past three years but the danger of spyware is still being ignored by PC users because they think it is not much of a threat.
Besides installing antivirus software, computer users should also be knowledgable about other kinds of security threats, said Lee. "Don't just download free mouse cursors or smilies because nothing is completely free," he added.
Eset manufactures the Nod32 antivirus product.
What is spyware actually?
Taken from From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In the field of computing, the term spyware refers to a broad category of malicious software designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate user. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party.
Spyware differs from viruses and worms in that it does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware – by design – exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites.
As of 2005, spyware has become one of the pre-eminent security threats to computer-systems running Microsoft Windows operating-systems (and especially to users of Internet Explorer because it is built into the Windows OS). Some malware on the Linux and Mac OS X platforms has behavior similar to Windows spyware, but to date has not become anywhere near as widespread. |
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