Beware of strange email msgs LO28152

From: Glebe Stcherbina (gstc3416@mail.usyd.edu.au)
Date: 04/03/02


Replying to LO28140 --

[Host's Note: Thanks, Glebe, for this additional note. We might caption
this, "Beware of what software you download to your computer!" The notion
is that a "shareware" or "freeware" package might contain a Trojan that
uses your internet connection to do things without your knowledge...
Some of the possibilities are quite scary... The Trojan could report your
web habits, transmit your checking account or passwords, participate in a
"denial of service" attack on some hapless target, or become part of a
server network for some enterprise. All unknown to you. For a reputable
story on a real case see http://news.com.com/2100-1023-873181.html about
a Trojan in Kazaa, a package which has been downloaded 2.6 million times!

I have not used the spychecker.com site which Glebe recommends.

I use Macintosh computers and trust these sources for info
 - http://www.versiontracker.com -covers both Mac and Windows
 - http://www.macfixit.com
 - http://www.macintouch.com
 - http://www.macosxhints.com
 - http://www.apple.com

I recommend that you be very selective in what software you download onto
your computer. ..Rick]

Hi Rick & fellow learners.

Thank you very much for your timely warning as I have occasionally
received an email message which had no LO number in the subject line.
Through past experience, I deleted them without opening them.

As a former University academic, I found the Internet a great research and
teaching aid when it was first introduced well before Commerce and
Industry were able to utilize it. However, over the past few years, I like
many others, have had to install anti virus packages and personal
firewalls to protect my computer from malicious attacks and snoopers.
Especially those who like to know what application programs you have and
what files are written to your hard drive. Even your browsing habits.

Fortunately, these safeguards have protected my PC. However, as many of
you are aware, there are snoopers who can bypass these safeguards. I
apologize to any fellow learner who maybe already aware of spyware and its
impact on your computer system.

As an Australian who gets advice on computer technology updates from
several sources, I found the March 2002 NZ Edition of "NetGuide" quite
interesting. I have not sought permission from the editor to reproduce any
material but an article written by Nigel Horrocks (pp 31-34) alerted
readers that "Secret software is being planted into downloads and ending
up on your computer".

Having worked for a very well known Software House, I can attest to this
happening.

Horrocks further states that irrespective of any safeguards that you may
have, this secret software known as "spyware" may cause distress to PC
users in others ways. Especially, as it "can monitor and read all your
files on your hard drive, check on your applications and even report all
your Web browsing habits to the originator of the spy program".

Horrocks suggests that before anyone downloads a program from the Web,
that they check with Spychecker on
http://www.spychecker.com

Spychecker tracks known programs with spyware and has free downloads
(without spyware) which you can use to eliminate these snoopers. When I
personally installed a program called Ad-Adware and ran it, I was
surprised of the number of spyware which were found in my memory, files
and application programs. Needless to say, I deleted them very quickly.
Some of them were quite harmless but you never know which ones are not.

The more sophisticated these virus originators and snoopers become,
learning communities, like ours can counteract their actions by sharing
the tools which combat these cyberspace intruders.

I trust that this information may help to keep our particular part of
cyberspace a bit more cleaner in the future.

Thank you and best regards to you all.
Glebe Stcherbina ( male)

Richard Karash wrote:

> I recommend:
> - Do use a virus protection program and keep it up to date
> - Do not use Outlook (This virus propagates even from the preview window!)
> - Do not double click attachments unless you have virus-checked them first
> - Do not open messages that look suspicious
>
> I take great care here to insure that it is impossible too propagate a
> virus through the LO list.

-- 

Glebe Stcherbina <gstc3416@mail.usyd.edu.au>

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>


"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.