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Spyware – Legislation?

We have all had to become more aware about what companies are doing to invade our privacy these days. Identity theft, frauds, and scams are happening every day and the perpetrators of these are getting more and more sophisticated.

There are even some major corporations involved in some of this as if ethics rules for businesses don’t apply to what they might do online. People tend to think that if a company is big and well known, they must be reputable. They go so far as to think it’s safer to do business with a big company than with one that is small. These corporations take advantage of that trust.

Many people do not even know the answer to this question; “Who are the biggest distributors of pornography in this country?” The common answers are Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, and others who are well known for that distribution.

For years, General Motors owned Direct TV. Direct TV is the company that has served up more pornographic movies than any other single company. I bet they don’t discuss that at GM’s shareholder meetings. The number two purveyor of porn for years has been AT&T. They run the pay-per-view channels that are piped into even very reputable hotel chains across the country.

My point is that just because you are very familiar with a company’s name does not mean that everything they send you is to be trusted. RealPlayer is notorious for adding unwanted software and installing those programs on your computer. In the fine print of their user-agreement, which they know you do not read, you give them permission to download what they like to call third-party software.

There are many companies you know and trust that let software piggy-back on their software’s installation without you knowing it in most cases. Of course, IF you read the user-agreement and you were an attorney who could understand the way they write it, you would have known you were giving permission for this nefarious activity.

The companies that make the malicious software pay the bigger more trusted companies to add their programs to their installations, because they know they could never get you to agree to download their software directly. And of course then you would also know it was running in the background on your computer using up your resources to make them money.

Big software companies also lobby congress to make sure no laws get passed that might limit the ways they can take advantage of computer users. And beyond that, the average politician doesn’t know anything about how computers or the Internet actually works. This helps the software companies keep them in the dark on the whole issue.

Until legislation is passed that prohibits spyware, malware, adware, badware, and other data-mining software, the problem is just going to get bigger. Until we have politicians that actually pay attention to new technology, we will continue to have corporations take advantage of their naivete and take advantage of the average Internet user.

Most of the terms of service written by these company’s attorneys are worthless from a legal standpoint. The items they put into the fine print will not hold up in a legal challenge. However, the average user is not going to hire a powerful attorney and pay the expense of taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court just because someone harmed their computer or allowed their identity to be stolen.

These companies know they are safe as long as they keep congress and users in the dark. They are cockroaches and cockroaches hate the light. Write to your congressman and tell him or her that this has to stop. These companies need to be stopped from the practice of downloading anything they want from anyone willing to pay them onto your and my computer.

A simple terms of service should be required and you should get to read it BEFORE downloading or paying for any software. It should contain an easy to read section called, “Other Items Installed On Your Computer When You Install This Program.”

D. David Dugan is the president of DD&C (http://www.dugancom.com) and personally helps to maintain their computer support forum at http://forum.dugancom.com as well as their Spyware Information site http://spyware.dugancom.com.

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carl@removeadwareonline.com

How A Personal Firewall Helps To Protect Your Home Computer From Hackers

There are two types of firewall available to the home computer user. A hardware firewall is a device which sits between your computer and the internet. At home for example it could reside on a broadband router which is used to share your internet connection with a number of computers. One of the advantages of a hardware firewall is that it can be used to protect more than one computer at a time. For this reason hardware firewalls are deployed in corporate networks. For home users who own just one computer a personal firewall is more commonly used and more cost effective.

A personal firewall is a software application that monitors and can block the flow of data between the internet and your computer. The firewall is a key part of your computer security set up. It prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer using an internet connection.

Hackers gain access to your computer through open ports that are used by your computer to communicate with the internet. The most basic firewall programs, like Windows XP’s firewall, monitor and can block “inbound” traffic by closing these ports. If theses ports are closed a hacker cannot access your computer directly via the internet.

More advanced firewall programs like products from ZoneLabs or Symantec also monitor and can block “outbound” traffic. This extra level of security is important and is worth investing in. For example, if malicious software like a Trojan Virus or spyware were installed on your computer without your knowledge the firewall would alert the user when it tried to connect to the internet and prevent it communicating with its host.

A firewall usually works at two basic levels. Firstly, packets of data are analysed based upon IP address and content to see whether they comply with a set of rules which a user can input to. The second level the data is analysed is at the application level. The firewall determines whether an application can send and/or receive data and the port which it should be communicating through.

The firewall “learns” through continuous interaction with the user. It seeks user approval from programs when they first come in to contact with the firewall. Most firewalls also allow the user to allow or block applications through a stored list of program which can be accessed through the firewall’s user interface.

There are a number of sites which will help test your firewall’s effectiveness. A number of these sites are run by security software vendors so it is recommended you test using an independently run site to double-check any results. One of the best independent test sites is run by The Gibson Research Corporation. They offer a free test called “Shield Up!” which can be found at their website - http://www.grc.com. The test checks a number of well-know and vulnerable ports on your computer and then provides some useful additional information to help improve your security while online.

It is important to remember that the firewall is only part of your computer security and does not negate the need for a good anti virus solution, a spyware removal tool and a degree of caution / common on sense on the type of websites a user visits. For example, the firewall will not scan for viruses or remove them from your computer.

Richard Rogers is a owner of a number of computer related sites. One of his sites offers Free Computer Help for Windows XP Users and has just launched his new Registry Cleaner Blog.

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carl@removeadwareonline.com
www.removeadwareonline.com

GAIN (Gator) - The Virus

It just amazes me how there are companies out there, claiming to be legitimate businesses, who are distributing what can only be known as spyware, adware, malware, badware, and viruses. These companies get away with it due to obscure clauses and legal double-speak in their terms of agreements, if they bother to have one at all.

Some websites will download unwanted spyware and badware on your computer without any consent from you at all. They claim that all of this information gathering has a legitimate purpose and that people are over-reacting.

Some people do not know what a virus is. It is simply a program. Just like any other program you download and use everyday. It must be installed onto your computer. The difference between a virus and a legitimate program lies in the purpose for which it was created.

A legitimate program was created to help you perform a task. A virus was created to harm your computer or steal information from you. The other difference is the first one is legal, the latter is not.

A virus is legitimately defined as an executable program, however, any script or macro should be included in that definition in my opinion. If they are written with the intent of causing harm to a user’s computer or they are written and installed on a user’s computer in order to gather information on that user, then they are no better and no different than a virus, and should fall under the same laws that apply to viruses.

If these programs like GAIN, Gator, and WinFixer are so legitimate, why are the techniques they use to install it on a user’s computer so sly? Why are they using these sneaky tactics, such as downloading it onto someone’s computer without disclosing what it actually is to the user in a clear manner?

Why do they write their malware, badware, and adware in such a way as to have it resist your efforts to remove it from your computer? Your computer is something you bought and paid for. You have the right to decide what will be installed on your computer. Anyone who writes a program that resists your ability to choose to remove it is a violation of your rights.

Our elected officials don’t know how to surf the web for the most part, let alone actually understand what the definition of a virus is and how to legislate against spyware and malware. Software companies who write legitimate programs lobby them to make sure they do not pass any laws that regulate the sale of software.

Example: Name any other product or service where you must pay up front for it before you even see the contract you must sign and agree to before you can use it?

Not only that, but large corporations support the use of malware, adware, spyware, badware, and viruses that gather information from users without their knowledge. They in turn buy that information to build their own consumer databases and use that information to sell you products. They pay to know what your habits are. As long as they are willing to pay for that information, companies like GAIN will continue to steal it from user’s and sell it to these companies.

If you want to know how many programs on your computer are gathering information about you, you will need to get some type of spyware detection software. There are several available, however, be careful, some of those advertising the removal of spyware are actually installing it on your computer themselves. Make sure you do a search in your favorite search engine to find out about the brand of software you are thinking of downloading.

If your computer is infected with Gator or GAIN, you may have to use anti-virus software to remove it. Many of the anti-virus companies have removal instructions on their website. If GAIN were a legitimate company and legitimate software, it’s highly doubtful it would have to be removed by an anti-virus program.

I hope this article has been helpful to you. GAIN, WinFixer, and other programs that act in this unethical manner should be considered viruses and held accountable for the harm they do to your computer and liable for the time it takes to remove them. That’s my opinion.

D. David Dugan is the president of DD&C http://www.dugancom.com and personally helps to maintain their computer support forum at http://forum.dugancom.com as well as their Spyware Information site http://spyware.dugancom.com.

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carl@removeadwareonline.com