Spyware in 87% of corporate PCs

[ams2d]

Spyware in Corporate PCs

"Despite the antispyware tools and legislation out there, we see no relief anytime soon because there's too much money to be made by producing spyware," said Richard Stiennon, vice president of threat research for the Boulder, Colo.-based company. "The status of adware and more malicious forms of spyware is vibrant."

• At least one form of unwanted program [Trojan, system monitor, cookie or adware] was present in 87% of PCs.
• Excluding cookies, the other forms of spyware were present in more than 55% of corporate PCs.
• Adware was present on 53% of machines scanned within the enterprise.
• The presence of Trojan horses within enterprises was "surprisingly high" at 7%, accounting for an average of 1.3 infections per PC.
• CoolWebSearch was the most successful spyware distributor, followed by such entities as Claria (formerly known as Gator) and 180SearchAssistant.

[DISLEX]

Wow. I am actually suprised it's not higher than that. I myself think it actually is. I am 99% sure I could go to 100 computers and scan them for ad/spyware and I bet you all 100 will have some. What makes me sick about is...

If I was to use my computer and install files on some companies computers w/o them knowing, I would go to prison.

Great info. Thanks.

[XTC46]

Wow. I am actually suprised it's not higher than that. I myself think it actually is. I am 99% sure I could go to 100 computers and scan them for ad/spyware and I bet you all 100 will have some. What makes me sick about is...

If I was to use my computer and install files on some companies computers w/o them knowing, I would go to prison.

the problem is many time the user DOES authorize the download and install. It is just normally packaged with something else, or disguise as something cool and free.

We also have to look at what they consider adware. MOt people dont consider alot of the cookies as adware. I dont care too much if clients have a bunch of cookie that are adware. its the reg. entries that piss me off and the search bars, and installed programs. So if you dont count many of the cookies the number drops significantly. also take into conideration "legal" spyware like MS has built in with office 2003. then you start to push the high numbers.

[Tryska]

i would have to agree.


but around here it seems to be cyclical. all was quiet for 4 or 5 months, and then boom - i've spent much of the last week cleaning up spyware on my end-users machines.

[Galdron]

You would think with the awareness regarding Spyware these days, that systems would be firmly in place to not only control the Malware, but the users themselves.

I can't imagine any major contract for a system that would not inlcude the most sophisticated protection available. But then again nothing surprises me anymore.


By the way I still think Mcafee writes all the Virii! With a courtesy reach around from Norton. hehe




-Galdron

Sidebar I just bought Bad Religions new album (The empire strikes first), jamming to the shiz as we speak. Good stuff.

www.badreligion.com/home/

Read and think.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/badre...hemeatwar.html

[gauravjulka]

Hey...... XTC i have been watching 4 ur useful comments... could u plz suggest the cure for these nasty warez. They are creeping inside our machines. some are even cheating the AV and firewalls. Even some softwares which claim to be the spy doctors themselves introduce spyware.

what kinda money they gonna make out of all this. Peoples machines are getting sick of this now.

[XTC46]

gauravjulka,
Yea, alot of adware will slip by ativirus and firewall proggys. As of late one of the best tools i have found for prevention is MS antispyware. I have it running at 4am on every machine in the office. It checks for updates at 3:55 am. at 1 am the antivirus updates and 1:30 the antivrus runs. in the moruning everything is nice and clean, and my antivirus server tells me if somoene had a virus. We also enforce some pretty strict Group policies as far as who can DL and install what (basicly if you arent a tech, you dont install, period.) So things stay nice and friendly. Of course stuff will slip by but its usually nothing big and can be ceaned up.