Spyware: Software gremlins that lurk in your PC...
I've just had a nightmare that lasted for more than a week. My system was unbelievably slow and when I opened MS office it took ages to open. When I started making entries in the excel sheet suddenly my cursor or mouse pointer jumped to unwanted places. It became so irritating that I just could not get hold of what was happening. It turned out to be a malicious Spyware program that did not pop up any ads or hamper my internet connection. But it took screenshots of my screen and transferred them to remote locations without my knowledge!
Just keep in mind ….
If you have an answer as “yes” to any of these, then you have a some malicious software that could be Spyware or Adware or Trojans that have been sitting quietly in your system and keeping an eye on your every movement.
Spyware and adware have popped up as the latest deadly threats for the computer security systems. They monitor a computer’s activity surreptitiously and then contact a remote computer to transfer all the vital stats to the distant server.
Spyware are basically advertisement related software that gets installed on any computer without any prior warning. Their main aim is to monitor a user activity like navigation pattern, system information, etc and then pop up relevant ads from the advertisers. They can be annoying and tend to make system slow. They may also hamper with your internet connection as they may share the bandwidth for data transfer.
How would you know that you are being spied upon? This tricky software resides in the most unlikely places or are disguised using similar names to common software such as Windows internal software or popular anti-virus programs.
One quick and dirty way is to search for the file "host" on your system in
- Windows XP -- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
- Windows 2K -- C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
- Win 98\ME -- C:\WINDOWS
This file usually contains only one line which is useful which reads as: 127.0.0.1 localhost. This file was initially used in earlier versions for networking purposes but has become almost obsolete now. It redirects the Internet address without the help of the internet.
Any text written in this file is useless and can be safely removed. If there is any system information or comments they are usually written with each line beginning with ‘#’. If there are some strange contents in there such as websites with an address of "127.0.0.1" or some other strange number, then your PC could be infected (for enterprise or corporate users, you might want to check with your resident System Administrator to be sure).
Spyware can have various types - Advertising kinds collect the data entered in various web forms etc and then serve the advertisements accordingly. Blackstone Transponder is known to track and record the websites visited. It then serves advertising on user screen as per the visitors history.
Surveillance spyware record keystrokes, log chat sessions, content of emails, etc. It may occasionally take screenshots of the monitor screen as well and transmit the same to a remote computer. Eg. eBlaster which tracks emails, chats, keystrokes and other similar activities.
Spyware removal
There are several spyware removal tools available on the Internet. Several of these spyware removal tools available for free download are actually means to install spyware on your system. Install an anti-spyware from a trusted source. Make sure that your windows update tool is on and you have a good personal firewall installed on your system.
In my case, I would thank Spyware Doctor (http://www.spywaredoctor.com) which not only helped me restore my original settings but also blocked any harmful intent from any remote locations. It costs only $29.95 for annual subscription for one computer. But if you want a good freebie, then you can try Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html). It’s cool software from Javacool Technologies. You can also try Spybot- S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/) or AVG Anti-Spyware (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/lng/us/tpl/v5).
Maintaining a "Clean" PC
Download recent updates from Windows and turn on the automatic download of updates. This is to ensure that even if you forget to download the recent updates then your computer would definitely remember it and apply it automatically.
After that, make sure you have a firewall installed. Although Windows XP gives you the benefit of a built-in firewall, what works best for me is ZoneAlarm. You can download it from the Zonelabs (http://www.zonelabs.com) website. It is a free, dynamic, application-level personal firewall which is pretty easy to use.
Of course, if you don't know what you're doing, try to abstain from installing P2P software (or downloading "unsafe" files using them) which are major source of these malicious software. If you suspect unfamiliar system behavior, then remove unidentified applications. Take a look at programs that you cannot identify and uninstall them using your system's Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs.
The best way to keep spyware away and not let them pose a threat to your computer security is to not let them get installed in the first place!
