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Steps Forward in Fighting Spyware
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By Mitch Johnson
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During 2004 there were significant strides in the battle againstspyware which will change the future of the invasive threats.The Federal Trade Commission and the United States Congressaddressed several issues involving spyware in an effort tominimize the threats coming from the quickly growing industry.Before these spyware issues were brought to government attentionspyware was known to be nearly anything that was an internetrelated threat.
There is now a formal definition telling that spyware is"software that aids in gathering information about a person ororganization without their knowledge and which may send suchinformation to another entity without the consumer's consent, orasserts control over a computer without the consumer'sknowledge." Also working against spyware, the congress passedseveral bills to stop spyware from installing and running itselfon someone's computer without their knowledge.
Most spyware distributors were able to sneak around the newslaws set into place by the legislation passed by making theirspy software more difficult to remove. Spyware will installunwanted toolbars, show pop ups, alter security settings, changeyour browser home page and change or delete system files. Otherforms of spyware can log each key stroke you make and then sendor sell it to unknown parties.
Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft's AdAware programs areavailable to personal computer users for free to combat spywarethreats. On the other side, spyware companies approached theirinvasive methods in a different way by coaxing users into buyingtheir products which would then install spyware. To stop theseefforts by spyware the FTC filed suits against SeismicEntertainment Productions and SmartBot.net who were sellingtheir spyware to be installed as an anti-spyware product.
These companies' programs, Spy Wiper and Spy Deleter, would sendwarning messages to users that their system had spyware and bypurchasing and installing on of these programs the threats couldbe detected and removed. On the contrary, the programs wouldbombard a user's computer with pop ups and install additionalspyware, causing computer malfunctions.
PestPatrol is another example of spyware companies' stealth likemethods. This popular anti-spyware product will actually detectspyware applications on a fresh computer with Windows XP thathas not been connected to the internet yet. This is usually adefinite sign of rogue spyware. These false claims byanti-spyware products are partially the reason why it isestimated nine out of ten computers are infected with spyware.
Studies done by industry experts at IDC have predicted thespyware market will grow up to $400 million dollars by 2008.Major security companies such as McAfee and Symantec are alreadybeginning to include anti-spyware software in their productpackages. Yahoo, Earthlink and Microsoft have also joined theanti-spyware world, releasing their versions of spyware removaltools.
By Microsoft breaking into the anti-spyware world severalsmaller spyware tool companies may be smashed because users willmost likely prefer the trusted company's software over anunknown.
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