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Advantage of spyware
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Spyware: The New Technological Menace
Spyware was once a word that no one had ever heard of, but it has evolved into a very popular word used when talking about the computer world. The definition of spyware is very simple. It is a software program that infiltrates computer systems and transmits information either back to its original source, or causes destruction inside the computer. C. David Moll of Webroot Software defines it as a program with the, "ability to access a user's machine without informed consent for financial gain," (Johnson). Spyware does not have one specific function. It can be created and modified to perform the exact actions that the creator wants done. Spyware infections invade privacy, destroy computer's internal programs, and are very hard to get rid of or filter. Spyware has become more of an issue as time has progressed. Many programs have been created to stop or try to control it, but it still runs ramped throughout the wires of the internet. Even the government has gotten involved to help control ever growing problem. Something has got to be done, before everyone's personal information is access, and all privacy is lost.
Spyware had been titled the largest threat to the internet since spam. The scary thing is, unlike spam, spyware is not always visible to detect and able to be recognized. "Spyware appears to be a new and rapidly growing practice that poses a risk of serious harm to consumers," (qtd. by FTC, 2004 in Sipior). A study showed that in 91 percent of personal computers are infected (Sipior). That percentage has done nothing but increased in the two year time period since 2003. In 2004 EarthLink audited 3.2 million personal computers and found 83.4 million traces of adware cookies (Sipior). Just imagine how many are circulating in every computer audited without the user knowing what is going on with their computer.
There are many several different types of spyware floating around in the internet world. Adware cookies are files that contain information about a user's interaction with a specific website. These can be used to keep track of contents of an online shopping cart or simplify a log-in process. Adware cookies are mainly used to track user behavior on the internet. There are more vicious viruses out there than adware cookies. Trojan horses can take control of a user's computer in the blink of an eye. This program triggers many pop-up ads that cannot be closed or moved (Sipior).
At the Aim Higher College there have been recently discovered malware on the campus systems that are due to many recent attacks. I used an Anti-virus protection software called AVG on the computer systems on campus and ran a whole computer scan. The results came back very quick of numbers of malware being high and medium priorities that these should not be taken lightly. Furthermore, the scan found many viruses, Trojans, and malicious software and applications.
Online predators, pornography, drug trafficking, piracy, and hate sites are just some of the dangers that a child can face on the internet. The article “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben states that parents should use spyware to monitor their children. Coben argues that parents should be able to know what is in their children’s lives. he believes that spyware can prevent children from being targeted by internet predators on social networking sites and even prevent children from being cyber bullied. I agree with Coben’s claim that parents should consider using spyware as a protection for their teens online. There are many possible dangers facing children on the internet and it is essential that parents install spyware.
Privacy and security issues have become one of the top concerns among computer users in today’s market. It has become a game of survival of the fittest in protection of your security. The only true way to defend yourself is knowledge. You should prepare your self against hackers, spammers and potential system crashing viruses and web bugs. Lets focus on how you can protect yourselves from the would be thieves.
Ever since day one, people have been developing and creating all sorts of new methods and machines to help better everyday life in one way or another. Who can forget the invention of the ever-wondrous telephone? And we can’t forget how innovative and life-changing computers have been. However, while all machines have their positive uses, there can also be many negatives depending on how one uses said machines, wiretapping in on phone conversations, using spyware to quietly survey every keystroke and click one makes, and many other methods of unwanted snooping have arisen. As a result, laws have been made to make sure these negative uses are not taken advantage of by anyone.
Information can be gathered about someone because of what they make public on social media, this includes: making a profile that includes personal information, tagging a location, or posting photos that capture personal details. However, data can also be gathered without one knowing. Information is gathered on store credit card holders every time they make a purchase. “Inside such a card a computer chip is buried that records every item purchased along with a variety of personal information of the buyer. This information obtained from the card enables marketing companies to do targeted marketing to specific individuals because the buying habits as well as other personal information of people are known” (Britz, 1996). There are certain types of software that can be considered harmless, for example “Cookies are small text files with unique ID tags that are embedded in a web browser and saved on the user’s hard drive” (Bidgoli, 2015) Another type of software that doesn’t have malicious intent is adware, which is simply a marketing tactic that collects data about internets users to determine which advertisements to put in each user’s web browser. Unfortunately, there are also types of software that do have malicious intent. One of these is Spyware, which is a type of software that gathers information about users, without their consent while they browse
Marshall, KP & Swartwout, N 2006 “Marketing and Internet Professionals' Fiduciary Responsibility: A Perspective on Spyware..” Journal of Internet Commerce, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 109–126. (online EBSCOHOST)
Once inside a system, spyware can gather e-mail addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers. This gathered information is then transmitted across the internet to the author of the spyware, who then uses the newly gained information to determine which ads should target...
Protecting your personal information, both on your personal computer and in other places such as your bank or your job, has become more difficult with the massive growth of the internet and the expertise of some unsavory characters called hackers, crackers or phreakers. Whatever they choose to call themselves, they are theives, plain and simple. Some people still question whether or not hacking should be illegal. I think it's obvious that what hackers do is illegal. A personal computer is personal and the information on it is private. When a hacker invades that privacy, he/she is trespassing and when they take your personal information they're committing a form of thievery (Ludlow). In addition to hackers, we now have marketers invading our privacy through the use of cookies (Rodger).
In today’s days malware is designated as a software which aims to disturb a computer with the consent or permission of the owner. This term “Malware” is used by computer professionals to describe a varied forms of destructive, annoying and intrusive software code. This word “Malware” is used to indicate all types of malware which include a true set of viruses.
What is the “MALWARE”? A malware refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. In Spanish, "mal" is a prefix that means "bad," making the term "bad ware" .Malware includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware. Viruses, for example, can cause havoc on a computer's hard drive by deleting files or directory information. Spyware can gather data from a user's system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the Web pages a user visits to personal information, such as credit card numbers.
In recent times we might consider that the right for privacy in one of our major achievements in our society. Unfortunately the same does not apply for the Internet. The Internet once considered a place for free information exchange and sharing, has the potential has becoming the biggest threat to its users. The commercialization of the Internet is one of the major reasons why the chances of a compromise of our privacy have increased. Customer profiling, address trading or simple lack of care with sensitive customer information are just some of the threats that this commercialization has bought to our ‘free’ Internet. Another reason being that with the increase of threats there is a regular change in technology to counter these threats. These changes make it harder for the already overstrained users to cope with the ever changing technology.
Malicious software in short known as Malware. It is also known as computer Contaminant. Similar to biological parasite, malware also reside in a Host. Malware will get installed on host without user’s consent. Generally a software is considered malware based on the intent of the creator...
As the name suggests, spyware operates like a spy. It can be defined as any software was made to spy and steal private information from people or organizations without their knowledge and consent. There are several ways through which the software can get into a person’s computer. Most importantly, however, the malware get into a computer as a virus. Alternatively, it may get there as a consequence of installing infected software (Aycock 8).
Malicious code is a real danger to modern systems. Most systems nowadays do not work in isolation; they are more likely to be connected to other systems and sometimes they can even be dependent on them. Therefore an attack on one of the systems in the network is a potential attacking attempt to any other systems, with which it is interacting. Therefore, it is inevitable for any networked or Internet-connected computers to deal with malicious code attacks at some point. Businesses lose billions of dollars each year because of malicious code attacks. Responding to the attack and restoring all the data on the computers is a time-consuming and expensive task. It is a much better practice to try preventing it through organizing and maintaining effective defenses. However, it is important to keep in mind that there is no one general solution that can help to prevent all the attacks. Attackers are constantly looking for new ways to take advantage of systems’ vulnerabilities and find new ones. That’s why organizations have to not only defend themselves against existing attack methods, but also try to predict and prevent new attacking techniques. It means that computer and network security is a never-ending challenge and expense.
Cyber Crimes are crimes committed via the Internet. In some cases, the source of attack is the computer system. These types of attacks can come in the forms of computer viruses such as worms or Trojan horses, DOS (denial of service), and electronic vandalism. (OJP, 2013). The computer can also be used to commit theft such as embezzlement, financial information, and fraud. Other uses involves malicious adware, phishing, spoofing, spyware, and hacking; to name a few.