* How readers avoid spyware
My recent column about spyware generated a number of responses. Here is a sample of what people told us regarding their spyware experiences and what they’re doing about the problem:
* “One approach that we have taken in the education of our employees is to focus on their home computer security. For some reason, people are far more willing to listen when we’re talking about threats to their own systems. We are also conscious of the news reports suggesting that hackers are now beginning to target home computing more frequently than corporate networks, due to ease of entry.”
* “During the fall and winter months, our foundation hosts a lunch for all employees. We (the IT department) gave a presentation during one of those lunches on how to keep your home computer free of spyware and viruses. Users seem more willing and eager to listen when 1) food is involved and 2) it will benefit them personally.”
* “We are using Firefox whenever possible. Some of our Web applications require Microsoft Internet Explorer, or claim to, so we have to use Internet Explorer with them. In my own testing, I have spoofed my user agent setting with both Firefox and Apple’s Safari browsers. It turns out that most of these applications will work reliably. Some, however, do not. I have found that computers using Firefox in this manner [do not become] infected again.”
* “One of the main initiatives at my company with respect to addressing spyware and all forms of malicious software is the increasing use of MacOS X systems. The architectural difference of the hardware and the more secure operating system design have greatly reduced this problem for us, particularly for laptop users. And the users all love the Macs. A year ago there were zero Macs here, now we’re about 20% and increasing.”
* “One thing you didn’t mention…of the 80% of PCs infected with spyware…100% are running Windows. For those of us who have shunned Windows in our environments – primarily the 20% that are not infected – we don’t have that problem.”
* “In my case I use GroupWise, Firefox, Novell NSS for file storage, Novell NDPS for printing, Novell eDirectory for authentication and PostgreSQL (on Linux). Seems that “best-of-breed” will remain one of the primary considerations of products deployed on networks that want security. And that implies heterogeneous networks which will need to follow standards to interoperate.”
Thank you to everyone who responded to the column.
