Spyware and Grayware

Your clients are at risk from potential threats other than viruses/malware. Grayware can negatively affect the performance of the computers on your network and introduce significant security, confidentiality, and legal risks to your organization.

Spyware: Gathers data, such as account user names and passwords, and transmits them to third parties.
Adware: Displays advertisements and gathers data, such as user web surfing preferences, to target advertisements at the user through a web browser.
Dialers: Change computer Internet settings and can force a computer to dial pre-configured phone numbers through a modem.
Joke Programs: Cause abnormal computer behavior, such as closing and opening the CD-ROM tray and displaying numerous message boxes.
Hacking Tools: Help hackers enter computers.
Remote Access Tools: Help hackers remotely access and control computers.
Password Cracking Applications
Other: Other types that are not covered above.

Potential Risks and Threats

The existence of spyware and grayware on your network has the potential to introduce:

Reduced computer performance: To perform their tasks, spyware and grayware applications often require significant CPU and system memory resources.
Increased web browser-related crashes: Certain types of grayware, such as adware, are often designed to create pop-up windows or display information in a browser frame or window. Depending on how the code in these applications interacts with system processes, grayware can sometimes cause browsers to crash or freeze and might even require a system reboot.
Reduced user efficiency: By needing to close frequently occurring pop-up advertisements and deal with the negative effects of joke programs, users can be distracted from their main tasks.
Degradation of network bandwidth: Spyware and grayware applications often transmit the data that they collect to other applications on your network or to locations outside of your network.
Loss of personal and corporate information: Not all data that spyware and grayware applications collect is as innocuous as a list of websites users visit. Spyware and grayware can also collect the user names and passwords users type to access their personal accounts, such as a bank account, and corporate accounts that access resources on your network.
Higher risk of legal liability: If hackers gain access to the computer resources on your network, they might use your client computers to start attacks or install spyware or grayware on computers outside your network. Having your network resources unwillingly participate in these types of activities might leave your organization legally liable to damages incurred by other parties.

How Spyware/Grayware Gets into your Network

Spyware and grayware often gets into a corporate network when users download legitimate software that has grayware applications included in the installation package. Most software programs include an End User License Agreement (EULA), which the user must accept before downloading the software. Often the EULA does include information about the application and its intended use to collect personal data; however, users often overlook this information or do not understand the legal jargon.

Guarding Against Spyware, Grayware, and Other Threats

There are many steps that you can take to prevent the installation of spyware/grayware onto your computer. Trend Micro suggests:

Configure On-Demand, Real-time, and Scheduled On-Demand Scans to find and remove spyware/grayware files and applications.
Educate your client users to:
- Read the End User License Agreement (EULA) and included documentation of applications they download and install on their computers.
- Click No to any message requesting authorization to download and install software unless client users are certain both the creator of the software and the website they view are trustworthy.
- Disregard unsolicited commercial email (spam), especially if the spam asks users to click a button or hyperlink.
Configure web browser settings that ensure a strict level of security. Trend Micro recommends requiring web browsers to prompt users before they install ActiveX controls.
If they use Microsoft Outlook, configure the security settings so that Outlook does not automatically download HTML items, such as pictures sent in spam messages.
Do not allow the use of peer-to-peer file-sharing services. Spyware and other grayware applications can be masked as other types of files your users might want to download, such as MP3 music files.
Periodically examine the installed software on your agent computers and look for applications that might be spyware or other grayware.
Keep your Windows operating systems updated with the latest patches from Microsoft. See the Microsoft website for details.