Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

U. Mississipi student offers tips for spyware, 'STD of the Internet'
By John Wade
Daily Mississippian (U. Mississippi)
03/06/2006

(U-WIRE) OXFORD, Miss. — It's late at night, and everything is going pretty well. It's just you, your computer and a few tunes on your playlist. One site leads to another, and pretty soon you're all over the Internet and getting into some wild stuff, like downloading things via Peer-2-Peer applications. A few weeks later, you notice a few changes to your computer: Your computer has trouble starting up; when it does start up, performance is erratic, causing frequent crashing while you're websurfing; you start to notice a rash of spam e-mails breaking out in your mailbox. You nervously call a computer technician, and after a few tests he confirms the worst: Your machine has spyware.

Risque metaphors aside, spyware is just plain nasty stuff. In addition to it being a potential security risk, it can sometimes do more damage to a computer system than a virus because of the ease at which it can get itself into your system. Spyware, by definition, is any form of software that installs itself into a computer — often without the knowledge of the user — and records information about the user such as e-mail addresses, Web sites visited, passwords, keystrokes used or (in some rare cases) credit card numbers.

Recently, spyware has also started to include adware and malware, which are programs that do the same as spyware but also deliver advertisements in the form of popups or spam emails using the information gathered, but in the case of malware, it actually goes as far as cloning itself if it is deleted, much like a computer virus. For the sake of this article, we'll refer to spyware, adware and malware as just simply, spyware.

Enough of the tech talk — what do you need to know about it? Well, spyware gathers information about your computer and the people using it, which is then sent to a company who sells the information to any number of people who may use it for whatever they please.

Your information may be used by people responsible for junk mailings, spam emails, and in some cases phone scammers and phishers. It also wreaks havoc on your computer by choking the resources it needs for other programs and hogging them all for itself.

Go to any computer repair shop and they'll tell you that spyware, if left unchecked, can and will cripple your computer. It also hits your pocketbooks as record amounts of spam cause Internet service providers to hike up prices to keep up with spambusting and server maintenance.

The biggest problem, however, lies in the fact that the people that manufacture spyware programs are laughing all the way to the bank because they're legally getting away with it. How is this legal, you ask? Well, while the software may be installing itself without your knowledge, they can claim that you did know because of that lovely little end-user agreement that you agreed to when you installed that copy of FreeKittyKatScreenSaver that had spyware with it. You know, that thing you never read but just always click "yes, I agree" anyway. That's how they get you. It may be deceptive, but it's still legal because you technically agreed to it.

But before you throw away that spyware-ridden computer, as some actually do, there is hope. I particularly recommend three applications that will not only help keep your information protected and your computer healthy, but when combined, will leave your computer safe — provided you don't cause any more self-inflicted damage by downloading any more shady "free" programs (excluding Open Source Applications, which rock), and stay off Limewire. It is notorious for being a huge breach in security due to malicious users.

This trinty of computer security is offered to us in the form of AdAware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Spyware Blaster. While there are many different applications dedicated to fighting spyware, these three have constantly stood atop the competition and championed the cause.

Here are some download links:

http://www.safer-networking.org/ — Spybot Search and Destroy

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html - Javacool's Spywareblaster

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ — Lavasoft's AdAware

Now, I'll assume that most of you know how to download and install software, otherwise you wouldn't have a problem with spyware in the first place. If you still insist that you don't know how, just go get the ten-year old kid living next door; I guarantee he knows how.

Now that you've installed them, how the heck do you run them? I'll help out with that, but more importantly I'll show you how to keep them updated because new forms of spyware, like viruses, hit the Internet daily.

Well now you know, and knowing is half the battle (GI Joooe!). Keep these programs updated, and run them on a regular basis (weekly if you still insist on grabbing shady programs, bi-weekly or monthly if you're careful), and you should be cool. However, since I'm depriving my fellow technical brethren of a lot of pocket change (I personally used to charge around $60 an hour for fixing this stuff), I'll be fair: Some of this stuff you're not going to get rid of easily.

There are a few types of Spyware that clone themselves, and others are directly associated with a particular virus, so if you can't get rid of it with those three applications, go see a technician. However, even a technician can't keep it from coming back.

You're the one responsible for keeping it off of your machine once it's removed. There's typically no warranty of any kind on work of this nature, yet with regular treatments and responsible use of the Internet, spyware is easy to keep in check, and always remember — practice safe computing: Use Firefox.

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