Spyware Weekly Newsletter :· January 13, 2004
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Spyware Weekly Now Available In Plain Text
By popular demand, this newsletter is now available in plain text form.
For some time, I have been sending a special text edition for a small number of subscribers who either have asked for it or who use screen reading software to read the newsletter to them. Now I have created separate subscription pages where people may choose which edition they prefer.
This week I will be sending this newsletter out twice to everyone, once in HTML and once in plain text (unless you already receive the text version). You can compare them and decide which version you prefer.
For those who want to switch, at the bottom of your newsletter is a link to unsubscribe. Use that to remove yourself from the database, then sign up again with the version you prefer. The sender's address is the same in both versions (newsletter@spywareinfoforum.info). If you use one of those challenge/response systems that forces new email senders to prove they are Human, whitelist that address ahead of time. I will not answer those emails anymore and will instead blacklist the entire domain it came from to keep them out of my inbox.
The sign-up page for the HTML version is at http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/subscribe/.
The sign-up page for the text version is at http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/subscribe_text/.
If the site is acting sluggish and slow to load, please give it time. It is under a huge strain every day until we move it to the new server. If it doesn't want to cooperate at all, come back in a few hours and try again.
X-Cleaner Spyware Remover
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Author: XBlock
Platform: Windows 9x, ME, NT 4.0, 2K, XP
License: $39.95 [10% off for SpywareInfo visitors]
Coupon code: SPYW-4XLP-INFO
Is your boss spying on you at work? Does the public internet terminal at Kinkos have a keylogger waiting in the background to steal your banking information? Did the e-card you just viewed install a spyware program? Find out with X-Cleaner antispyware.
X-Cleaner Spyware Remover is an award winning spyware detector that finds and removes commercial spyware programs. You can even put X-Cleaner on a floppy disk and carry it to work in an envelope or in your shirt pocket. Insert the floppy into your PC at work or at a public PC, scan, and zap any keyloggers found.
Features include:
- Remove traces of documents opened, pictures viewed.
- Detect and remove "spy" software that logs your activity.
- Find and remove forgotten pictures on your machine.
- Permanently erase files using the industrial shredder.
- Stop password theft! Know if people are snooping your keystrokes!
- Generate Secure Passwords that cannot be guessed by anybody.
- Portable! So small you can take it with you to public machines.
- No installation required - simply download and use.
Busts spyware like:
KeyKey, SubSeven, Stealth Keyboard Logger, Snapshotspy, Surf Spy, Net Spy, GhostKeylogger, PC Activity Monitor, PC Spy, STARR, Spector, eBlaster, Red Hand Pro, Hacker Whacker, FreeWhack, WinWhatWhere, BossEveryware, Conducent, Aureate and many more!
Please visit our X-Cleaner information page for more information.
Every week, SpywareInfo arranges a discount on the programs best suited to keep your private life private. This arrangement lets us pay the bills to keep SpywareInfo running without having to sell ads to the likes of DoubleClick and X-10.
We do need your input, as the discount is for your benefit. What commercial privacy software would you like to see featured here at a discount? Drop us a note and let us know.
WhenU Forbidden To Use Certain Pop-ups
Judge Deborah Batts of the Southern District Court of New York granted 1-800 Contacts an injunction prohibiting WhenU from sending pop-ups based on trademarked search terms relating to '1-800 Contacts' and requiring that the trademarked terms be removed from its search terms database.
This is a significant victory for web publishers outraged at companies such as WhenU, Gator/Claria, Ezula and others. These companies produce and distribute parasitical software programs that are attached to popular freeware and install alongside them, not always with the knowledge of the user.
These programs pop up annoying advertisements based on searches and keywords related to the content on web sites with whom they have no business relationship and divert ad revenue from those web sites. Many large web publishers and online businesses have been battling in the courts for years to put an end to these parasitical advertising practices.
I look forward to the day when this business model is outlawed altogether. Why should these companies profit from traffic to web sites they had no part in producing? Not being capable of generating interest in your own site or product is not an excuse for stealing it from others.
'Owner' of Pop-Up Patent Sues Web Sites
InternetAd Systems, a recently formed company that aims to commercialize its patent rights, said this week that it plans to seek royalties from various Web sites that use popular online ad formats, including some types of pop-up and pop-under ads.
It has already filed a legal complaint against ESPN, The New York Times Co. and Travelocity.com, charging the companies with infringing on one or all of its four patents related to Internet ads. The civil suit asks for damages of an unspecified amount and a permanent injunction against the parties from using the ad formats.
Good. I hope they win this case. If web sites are forced to pay these greedy idiots a royalty fee every time they use a pop-up ad, maybe they'll just quit using them.
Cell Phone Tracking
Last week I asked people to tell me if their E911-enabled cell phones included a setting to disable the location tracking. Thank you very much those of you who wrote to me.
I now have an article on the web site describing the situation briefly and listing all of the phones people mentioned. If you have a cell phone with the E911 tracking and you don't see it listed, write to me and let me know if it lets you turn that off.
Freebie: AirSnare. Keep An Eye On Your Network
If you have a wireless network at home or at the office, you inadvertently may be providing internet access to anyone who walks by with a laptop computer and a wireless network card. Depending on what those strangers do, it might land you in a world of trouble.
Increasingly, people are hijacking open wireless internet connections to send spam and commit crimes. One man in Toronto, Canada recently was arrested for downloading child pornography while using an unsuspecting homeowner's wireless internet connection.
AirSnare is a free tool that monitors MAC addresses, which are unique addresses assigned to every network device on your Local Area Network (LAN). AirSnare notifies you when it detects a new MAC address tapping into your LAN. AirSnare even tells you where the users are surfing and allows you to notify them that you're watching their network activity.
Although it is intended as a tool for watching for people connecting to wireless internet access points, AirSnare also works fine on traditional wired networks. Any device connected to your LAN will be detected and AirSnare will sound an alert. This makes it useful for detecting unwanted intrusions. In addition, it will launch a packet sniffer called Ethereal if that program is installed.
If you want to allow someone to connect to your network to surf the internet, you can use AirSnare to send them a message letting them know they are welcome to surf, but that their activities might be monitored (assuming the person is using Windows NT, 2000 or XP).
AirSnare is freeware. The author asks for donations, so click that Paypal link if you become a frequent user of the program.
The Evidence Eliminator Documents
Software development company Radsoft has published a series of documents bashing the infamous Evidence Eliminator program. The documents describe Evidence Eliminator's spamming of Usenet newsgroups and their use of thoroughly disreputable scare tactics to frighten internet users into buying their software.
They also have a very detailed review of the program itself. Basically, Radsoft's testing shows that Evidence Eliminator is garbage. It doesn't even support NTFS file systems, the default file system used by Windows NT, 2000 and XP.
Keep in mind that Radsoft sells competing software. They even link to it in their 'Evidence Eliminator Documents'. However, I believe their documents to be accurate even if they are taking the opportunity to pitch their own products. It's pretty nasty stuff and the behavior Radsoft describes is the same behavior that led me to delist Evidence Eliminator ages ago from SpywareInfo's download pages.
Privacy and Spyware Headlines
Nominate a Pioneer for EFF's 2004 Pioneer Awards
EFF established the Pioneer Awards to recognize leaders on the electronic frontier who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of information technology. This is your opportunity to nominate a deserving individual or group to receive a Pioneer Award for 2004.
The International Pioneer Awards nominations are open both to individuals and organizations from any country.
All nominations are reviewed by a panel of judges chosen for their knowledge of the technical, legal, and social issues associated with information technology.
This year's award ceremony will be held in Berkeley, California, in conjunction with the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference (CFP), which takes place in mid-April.
How to Nominate Someone for a 2004 Pioneer Award:
You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one email per nomination. Please submit your entries via email to pioneer@eff.org We will accept nominations until February 1, 2004.
Simply tell us:
1. The name of the nominee,
2. the phone number or email address at which the nominee can
be reached, and, most importantly,
3. why you feel the nominee deserves the award.
More: http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer/
Air Passenger Code Plan In Motion
Precautions in the name of air security are about to taken to a level unimaginable in the United States only a few years ago.
Airlines and airline reservation companies would reportedly be forced to turn over all passenger records to U.S. government officials, who struck out in a trial program was based on voluntary surrender of airline industry data.
Not a single airline agreed to turn over data voluntarily.
More: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/12/terror/main592564.shtml
U.S. to Push Airlines for Passenger Records
Despite stiff resistance from airlines and privacy advocates, the U.S. government plans to push ahead this year with a vast computerized system to probe the backgrounds of all passengers boarding flights in the United States.
The government will compel airlines and airline reservations companies to hand over all passenger records for scrutiny by U.S. officials, after failing to win cooperation in the program's testing phase. The order could be issued as soon as next month. Under the system, all travelers passing through a U.S. airport are to be scored with a number and a color that ranks their perceived threat to the aircraft.
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8504-2004Jan11?language=printer
Trade Group Tries To Smear Privacy Activist?
An errant email sent by a Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) employee suggests that the organization may be resorting to personal attacks to deflect growing criticism of member company RFID plans. The GMA is the world's largest association of food, beverage and consumer product companies. Its membership includes known proponents of RFID, including Gillette and Procter & Gamble.
According to email evidence, a GMA employee emailed Katherine Albrecht, Founder and Director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) to request a copy of her bio, "for our sources." Ms. Albrecht found the request unusual and requested further information.
"To my great surprise, the following day I received a message from her that was clearly intended for someone else," said Albrecht. The text of the email was as follows:
I don't know what to tell this woman! "Well, actually we're trying to see if you have a juicy past that we could use against you."
Albrecht characterizes the letter as "disturbing," and has requested an explanation from GMA CEO C. Henry Molpus and Gillette CEO James Kilts, who is also Chairman of the GMA. Her open letter to these gentlemen along with copies of the email exchanges is posted at the CASPIAN web site at http://www.spychips.com.
More: http://www.spychips.com/gma.htm
GMA Issues Apology to RFID Privacy Activist
GMA CEO C. Manly Molpus issued an apology for an errant email that suggested the organization might be formulating a smear campaign against an RFID privacy activist. According to email evidence, a GMA employee emailed Katherine Albrecht, Founder and Director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN), to request a copy of her bio, "for our sources." Ms. Albrecht found the request unusual and emailed a request for further information.
More: http://www.spychips.com/gma_response.htm
Big Brother Britain, 2004
"Other countries have been much more wary about CCTV, because of long-held concepts such as freedom of expression and assembly. These seem to be alien concepts in here."
The use of cameras to film people in the street is banned in Germany, Canada and several other countries. But it is accepted practice in Britain, which is alone in not having a privacy law that protects people against constant surveillance. The Data Protection Act states that the public has to be informed that CCTV systems are in operation, and be told how they can exercise their legal right to see their own footage. But civil rights groups said many councils, shops and businesses were failing to provide this information, and they estimated that up to 70 per of CCTVcamera operators were breaking the rules.
More: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=480364
Windows 98 gets support reprieve
"Microsoft made this decision to assist our customers worldwide who are still dependent upon these operating systems and to provide Microsoft more time to communicate its product lifecycle support guidelines in a handful of markets -- particularly smaller and emerging markets," said Microsoft Australia's senior Windows desktop product marketing manager, Danny Beck.
More: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39119028,00.htm
