Tougher action needed against spyware
Tougher action needed against spyware
Despite the proposal of a new spyware control bill, some analysts believe that it will not be tough enough to rid the scourge of attacks on PCs at home and within big organisations.
The Bill proposes to create more openness so that people are more aware of when they are being targeted by a company with spyware technology, but it does not prevent the damage caused by spyware once it is in the computer system.
Garham Connolly, Websense's (a web filtering company) territory manager for Australia and New Zealand talked about how much destruction can be caused to machines once they are in the system. "Research has revealed that half of PCs which use Microsoft crash because of spyware code that has been launched into the system.10 percent of Dell computers suffer hardware failures also because of spyware.
"The Bill will make it more obvious when spyware is about to be launched, but it won't solve the problem. Most of the spyware code is trashy and badly written, and it can eat away at the computer on a daily basis as it tries to call up adverts, or pop-ups that conflict with software on the rest of the system. After a while, it can cause a computer to just shut down all together.
"The other issue is to do with security. Many banks are worried about this. Spyware is often loaded onto computers with malicious code. This is dangerous if you have a key stroke loggers who has entered your system via spyware. They can record every document and email written once they are in and this confidential information can be very damaging for large corporations if it is taken our of the business. Many banks are suffering from phishing scams, which involve hackers stealing credit card details."
Websense offers a solution to this problem by offering services that block spyware from connecting to the Internet once it is installed, therefore making it neutral and useless. If it can't connect to the Internet, then it is unable to operate or download adverts which damage the system.
It also contains the application on the desktop, so that it does not keeping launching on the desktop.
In the US, a recent survey by Websense found that 92 percent of organisations with at least 100 employees have been contaminated with spyware, yet only 6 percent of employees believe they have been infected.
40 percent of IT managers also reported the number of spyware-infected workstations has increased in the past year.
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