Re: Adware, spyware, and trojans

["Emily Eileen Witcher" <emily () crytech com>]

This doesn't qualify as adware removal software, but it's an interesting
little browser enhancement (IE 5.0+ only)
http://www.bugnosis.org/

It detects and displays what the Privacy Foundation (the software provider)
calls "web bugs"
> From their FAQ:

"What exactly is a Web Bug?

A Web bug is a graphic on a Web page or in an e-mail message designed to
monitor who is reading the page or message. Web bugs are often invisible
because they are typically only 1-by-1 pixels in size. In many cases, Web
bugs are placed on Web pages by third parties interested in collecting data
about visitors to those pages.

What information is sent to a server by a Web bug?

 The IP address of the computer that fetched the Web bug
 The URL of the page that the Web bug is located on
 The URL of the Web bug image, which contains the information to be
communicated between the Web page visited and the site collecting the data
 The time the Web bug was viewed
 The type of browser that fetched the Web bug image
 A previously set cookie value"

Not practical as an IT tool, but it makes surfing certain web sites very,
very interesting... works in HTML e-mail too.

Emily Witcher - emily () crytech com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stokes Andy" <stokes_andy () bah com>
To: "Carere Courtney" <CCarere () rich com>
Cc: <security-basics () securityfocus com>
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: Adware, spyware, and trojans


> Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) and PestPatrol
> (http://www.pestpatrol.com/) both do a bang up job at cleaning up things
> the AV programs don't get.
> Andy
>
> "Carere, Courtney" wrote:
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > Upon reading "The Art of Deception" by Kevin Mitnick yesterday (an
> > excellent book, by the way), he writes that most antivirus software
> > does not detect spyware, which was a shock to me.  Spyware seems to
> > be defined as software that logs keystrokes, screenshots, user
> > actions, etc.  I have a couple of questions:
> >
> > 1.  What's the distinction between spyware, adware, and trojan
> > software?  (My antivirus software says it protects against Trojans,
> > and I've seen programs like SubSeven in its log files.)
> >
> > 2.  Is there any good software that detects and removes spyware,
> > ideally controlled and updated continuously from a central server?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > - - Courtney Carere
> >
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