Spyware

Spyware is a generic name for malicious software that can take many different forms. Spyware can deliver unwanted advertising (pop-up ads), harvest private information and monitor user activities. It can also re-route Web requests (for example, to illegally claim commercial site referral fees) or install stealth phone dialers.

An unwelcome byproduct of many spyware programs is that they can drastically impair system performance and consume network resources. Spyware programs can also incorporate design features that make them difficult to remove from a system. The cost to an organization can be high.

What Counts As Spyware?

Identifying spyware is not always easy because it can come bundled with legitimate programs. A growing number of legitimate software titles install secondary programs to collect data or distribute advertisement content, without properly informing the user about the real nature of those programs. Spyware installation programs and license agreements may tell the user what it will do, but this is often hidden in legal jargon. This is the spyware company's escape clause.

Spyware Is Not A Virus

Unlike a virus, spyware is usually installed, albeit unwittingly, by the end user. Spyware is often created by legally formed companies with their own development staff. Spyware companies have sometimes threatened defamation or libel action against anti-spyware groups and other companies. This makes the matter of scanning for and removing spyware more difficult.

A number of different types of malicious software are grouped as spyware. These include:

Hacker Tools

Programs that are intentionally run by a hacker or malicious programmer, usually on the hacker's computer. These tools can be used to search for security holes in systems and networks.

Key Loggers

Applications, running in the background of an innocent user's computer, that record all the user's keystrokes and deliver this information to a remote location. Key logging can be used for identity theft, and also as a way to obtain security information for later use.

Trojans

Hidden and unwanted software that runs on a user's machine as an agent of the attacker.

Remote Administration Tools

Trojan programs that enable an attacker to remotely control a computer, using a client in the attacker's machine and a server in the victim's machine.

Worms

Programs that propagate by attacking other computers and copying code to them. The code then attacks additional computers.

How Is Spyware Installed?

Spyware programmers use a variety of tactics to get the software installed on the target computer. Among the most common methods are:

• Bundling with an apparently useful program that is available for download free of charge, which encourages wide uptake of the spyware component—This applies especially with file-sharing clients
• Taking advantage of security flaws in your Internet browser software—Downloading with or without any prompt, a drive-by download takes advantage of easy installation via ActiveX controls
• Loading spyware during a user's attempt to integrate Web-based applications onto the user's own system

What Are The Risks of Spyware?

Spyware poses a number of serious risks for organizations, from both a technical and data privacy perspective:

• Key loggers and similar tools can consume significant resources on workstations. and on the organization's network
• Key loggers can deliver intellectual property to outside parties without your knowledge
• Key loggers can render a network environment unsafe for users, potentially opening a legal liability issue for the organization
• Key loggers can allow hackers to gain unrestricted access to a network, with all the risks that implies
• Worm variants of spyware will dramatically affect network availability

M86 Security solutions allow you to check for and stop spyware at the network gateway—ensuring that you can secure your network against spyware intrusion, protect your users and confidential data, and comply with regulations on data privacy.

WebMarshal and MailMarshal SMTP integrate fully with the two market-leading anti-spyware scanners: CA Anti-Spyware for the Enterprise (PestPatrol) and CounterSpy. Both products clearly classify potential threats and offer automated updates to respond to evolving threats.

Both scanners are used within M86 Security's flexible rule-based access policies, putting you in control of how you choose to deal with any reported threats.

M86 Security's Additional Layers Of Defense

M86 Security's powerful URLCensor (DNS Blacklist) and M86 Security Filtering Database also contribute to a full-featured defense against spyware.