Adware, Spyware and Bots,
Oh My!
by Camden Lindsay © 2004, All Rights Reserved.
Are you … tired of having ads pop up
on your computer screen while you’re trying
to do project work or research on the Internet?
If it happens often enough that you are tired of it, your computer has probably
been compromised by programs that the tech industry calls ‘adware’, ‘spyware’,
or ‘bots’.
How did these … programs get installed on
your computer? Well, spyware programs are sometimes installed without the user’s
knowledge (illegally), but will often ask the user for acceptance through pop
up installer windows that say things
like “Do you want to install XXXXX, which is a component required to
view this site?”. Some websites try to force you into saying ‘yes’ by
popping up a messages like “You must click ‘yes’ to view
this site”; but when you click no, you can't exit the
window. Once you check yes to the usage agreement, you are the target of
whatever wrongdoing the adware or spyware is created for.
What kind of wrongdoing is this? Adware does
not just cause ads to pop up; some variants do much worse. They may
log
what
websites you go to and send the information to parent
servers, allowing them to ‘focus’ the type of ad they
want to pop up on your screen. Some variant bots will send any information
typed into a form on the internet to not only the site that you are trying
to submit
it to, but also the spyware’s parent server. This information can then
be used to access your bank accounts, credit card accounts, email accounts,
or any account that requires user names and/or passwords—as
well as opening the concern of identity theft if you apply for credit online.
Another bad thing … spyware also wastes
your computer system resources. The processes (or background programs) that
are telling your computer what ads to pop up
and
when to pop them up are running all of the time, making the computer slower.
It really is kind of like driving around in your car with a couple of cinderblocks
in the trunk!
Now, before you get too worried: Just
because you have seen a couple of pop up ads doesn’t
mean your system has been compromised. There are pop up ads that are caused
by websites and not by spyware. Many free sites use these ads to acquire funding.
A good example of this is hotmail; quite often a pop up ad will appear with
a message like “MSN Site Sponsor ” in the top bar when logging
into hotmail.
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A common mistake … is to think you need
a ‘pop up blocker’. The number of pop
up ads on the internet that are not caused by adware is pretty low; mostly
on
sites
that are either offering free services or are using free internet space for
their page (free web hosting). While a pop up blocker will block these few
ads, it can also mask how bad an adware problem you may have by blocking
the adware ads as well. Pop up blockers are also another process wasting computer
resources—and the more adware pop ups you have, the more computer resources
are wasted not only in the adware creating the pop ups, but also in the pop
up blocker’s blocking of the adware’s ad. Now you have double the
cinderblocks in your trunk!
To keep your computer free … of spyware,
you must be careful of what you do on the internet. If a window pops up telling
you that you must say ‘yes’ or ‘ok’ to
enter the site, don’t do it unless you are sure that the site is safe!
If the window has an ‘x’ in the top corner of it, use that to
close it instead of pressing either ‘yes’ or ‘no’,
and if you find yourself stuck in such a manner that the webpage won’t
let you out (without pressing ‘yes’ or ‘ok’), you
can use task manager (if you know what it is) to close the application, or
just shut down your computer to get out!
There is also software that protects your system settings. These protectors
tell you whenever a program is trying to install on your computer, and let
you choose to allow it or not. And of course, everyone should have a firewall,
preferably hardware (a router) and software. Microsoft's new firewall in XP
Service Pack 2 is a good start, but it only blocks incoming threats; it does
nothing about the spyware already on your system that is sending messages to
a server somewhere. Additional software such as the free version of ZoneAlarm
(www.zonealarm.com) helps you in both directions.
So, now you know… what it is, what it
can do, and how to avoid getting it. Your next question should be, “how
do I get rid of it?”. There are several free
tools that scan your computer to look for spyware. There are also many
pay
tools that are supposed to get rid of spyware, but some of these tools can
be associated with the spyware creators (as has been reported in the news
recently).
The two best known free programs are called “Ad-aware” and “Spybot
Search and Destroy”. Most people recommend using both. Spybot’s
newest release includes a system settings protector that keeps programs from
installing
that you
don’t
want. Links to the newest versions of their software (and other such free
tools such as Zonealarm firewall) are available from this link:
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_internet.htm
If you need help … understanding what
I’m talking about, or getting rid of
adware on your computer, contact your systems administrator or favorite technical
expert.
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Author: Camden Lindsay is an asapm member, and is a recent graduate from
Penn State University, with a B.S. in Management Information Systems, and
Math and Computer Science Minors. Camden originally wrote this article for
his co-workers in a company in Oregon, where he is a
Network Systems Engineer. He then thought that others at asapm could
benefit from it
as well.
Appropriate,
in that at least one of our asapm board members has been afflicted with Adware,
Spyware
and Bots, Oh My! Thanks Camden!
In the interests of full disclosure, Camden
is asapm founder Stacy Goff's nephew.
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