Spyware

• What is spyware?
• How will I know if I have spyware on my computer?
• Will my PC be harmed by spyware?
• How did my PC become infected?
• What is the College doing to protect my PC against spyware?
• What can I do to protect my PC against spyware?
• How do I contact the Help Desk?
• What do I do if I think my home computer has been infected by spyware?

What is spyware?

The term spyware refers to a class of software products that collect information about a computer user without the user’s knowledge or explicit permission. Spyware tracks your web browsing patterns. As a general rule, information collected by spyware is used for marketing purposes. Spyware programs also harvest unprotected personal information from the victim’s computer. When spyware is grouped with another type of tracking software often called adware, some estimates of PCs on the Internet running unwanted snooping software are as high as 90%.

How will I know if I have spyware on my computer?

Most people notice odd behavior on their computers; some common symptoms are:

1. Your web browser opens with ads or there is an unexpected change in your home page or search engine


2. New tool bars or strange objects suddenly appear in your browser


3. Pop-up ads show up on your desktop when you are not browsing the web


4. Computer performance slows or your machine freezes or crashes frequently


5. Applications do not launch properly or misbehave.

If you believe that your College-owned computer is infected with spyware, please call the Help Desk at Ext 8803 and the Help Desk staff will assist you with diagnosis and protection against future infection.

Will my PC be harmed by spyware?

Spyware modifies files on your PC. Some infections are so severe that removing the spyware from the PC requires reloading the operating system and restoring data files from back-up copies. Backing up important files has always been an essential, but often ignored safe computing practice. Although removal tools will eradicate spyware from most computers, faithful backup of important files remains the only sure-fire method of preserving your data. If you believe that your backup system is inadequate, please contact the Help Desk for assistance with a backup strategy.

How did my PC become infected?

Spyware creators don’t play fair. They use all sorts of sneaky tricks to get you to install their unwanted programs. When you visit a web site and download material to your PC, you may unwittingly install spyware. The web site may ask you to click okay to download free coupons or rebates, screen-savers, games, or utility programs such as Internet accelerators to increase the speed of web browsing. Spyware may be part of the bargain, an unmentioned, unavoidable add-in included in free software that you download or receive on CD. When you load the software and click “I agree”, you may later find that you have agreed to load the spyware and send your personal information to a marketing company. Even more dangerous programs may be bundled into free software, especially applications that allow file-sharing of music and video. They are trojan horses, a very nasty type of malware. Trojans give others direct access to your PC from the Internet and may include keystroke logging programs to transmit whatever you type including passwords to unknown parties without your knowledge. To date, antivirus software has proven effective in monitoring trojans on campus; attempts to install of trojans on faculty and staff machines are common and routinely detected by the College’s enterprise antivirus software.

What is the College doing to protect my PC against spyware?

Information Services is asking for your support in spotting spyware on college-owned machines. As the campus community becomes more knowledgeable about spyware and adware, risky practices such as downloading software to College PCs will diminish and the infection rate should decline. While changing the behavior of individuals may currently be the best defense against spyware, technical solutions are evolving rapidly. Windows XP Service Pack 2 incorporates a pop-up blocker and Symantec Antivirus version 9 provides limited spyware detection. User Support Services will be upgrading all campus desktops to XP SP2 and SAV 9 during the spring semester. As needed, spyware removal tools will also be installed on campus desktops. Enterprise SPAM control software is already in use at RIC filtering out the unsolicited email generated though spyware installation. Microsoft is developing a spyware detection tool and a Beta version is available to the public.

What can I do to protect my PC against spyware?

Your help in reporting suspected spyware infection to the Help Desk is a vital component of RIC’s spyware eradication program. Unfortunately, the Internet is not safe for casual browsing. Downloading software to your computer is potentially dangerous so checking with the Help Desk before downloading material from the Internet to your college-owned computer. Other safe practices include protecting your personal information, name, address, etc and using Secure Sockets Layer to encrypt passwords and other sensitive information, e.g. on-line credit card payment (when SSL is enabled, you will see the little lock icon at the bottom of your browser screen).

How do I contact the Help Desk?

Please telephone Ext. 8803 between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Friday or email helpdesk@ric.edu.

What do I do if I think my home computer has been infected by spyware?

The best method of determining if your home computer is infected is to follow the recommendations of your Internet Service Provider or to audit your computer using a reliable source such as EarthLink’s Spy Audit which is freely available for everyone at EarthLink’s web site. . Windows XP Service Pack 2 and the latest versions of popular antivirus software from Symantec and McAfee offer limited protection against spyware exploits. Windows users must be vigilant, keeping their home computers patched by using Microsoft’s Windows Update service http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and running antivirus software configured to update automatically or whenever new virus signature files are released. Two popular spyware removal tools are available free of charge to the home computer user. They are Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html) and Ad-Aware Personal Edition (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/). While the College does not endorse any spyware removal tools, Spybot and Ad-Aware have received good reviews in the press. For additional information, please see Microsoft’s recommendations for detection and removal at http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/spywareremove.mspx.
If you have a significant problem, you may want to consider changing your computer’s browser. As the market leader, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been a prime target for spyware programmers. Therefore, in the current climate, browsers built on the Mozilla engine such as Netscape and the recently-released, well-reviewed browser, Firefox, may provide a safer browsing experience. However, Internet Explorer is tightly interwoven with other Microsoft products so switching to a non-Microsoft browser has a down side. Other browsers do not offer the same level of integration with Microsoft products and some features found in the Office product family and Outlook Web Access are not available to users of third-party browsers. For example, unless integrated with Internet Explorer, Outlook Web Access 2003 cannot provide spell checking, email signatures, encryption or rule-based tools to manage email.