May 06 16
Spyware: have we lost the war?
Posted by Munir Kotadia @ 9:39 6 comments
Last week, two security companies spoke to me about their new products and I suddenly realised that we are close to losing the war against spyware.
There are various forms of spyware with some being more aggressive than others but they all share the same desire -- to steal personal information from their victim's computers.
Over the past week I have spoken with two companies that have created security applications designed specifically to allow a spyware-infected computer to establish a secure link so the user can safely access online banking services without fear of losing any confidential information.
On Tuesday I spoke with Wintutis about vPure, which is a 'security wrapper' for Internet Explorer. According to Chandan Kudige, one of the company's cofounders, as soon as vPure is activated, any spyware on the computer will be blocked from accessing information flowing between the browser and the Internet.
Kudige told me that the product "basically stops any way in which data can be siphoned out of the browser".
However, he admitted that the product is not yet able to protect users from spyware that collects screenshots instead of keystrokes.
However, on Thursday at the CeBIT exhibition, executives from another software developer approached me and explained how their product works in a similar manner to vPure but is also able to block screen grabbers from compromising the secure link.
Have we really got to a point where users have to admit that they cannot get rid of the spyware infesting their PCs? Why else would we need to create a 'safe' connection before accessing an online bank?
Instead of killing off spyware we are learning how to live with it, which makes me think that this battle is almost over.
But have we lost the war?
The problem is the same as the problem with viruses, as long as there is enough motivation to create new technologies to infect computers the 'war' can never be won.
After 30 odd years of malicious viruses affecting the way people use their computers the problem still continues, unfortunately with the added financial benefit of spyware and adware, and to a lesser extent malware, the problem with just continue to grow.
The best thing people can do to avoid the problem is to run windows in a limited user mode without program installation rights. This will prevent 95% of spyware, adware, and malware from getting onto your machine.