Who's watching you

Spyware does more than just steal information about your computing habits - it robs your system of speed and Internet access efficiency. These threats are rapidly proliferating and represent a major security and privacy risk.  Click here to find out how your organisation overcome the Spyware threat.

How to Control the Impacts of Spyware, Hacking Tools, and other Harmful Applications
Companies of all sizes face increasing threats from spyware, adware, and other malicious programs commonly known as “pests” or “non-viral malware.” These unwanted applications, which are not detected by anti-virus programs, pose an escalating danger to corporate data security and employee productivity. Businesses that wish to reduce potential liability and improve workforce efficiency will benefit from supplementing existing anti-virus and other security strategies with comprehensive protection from these malicious programs. eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware Corporate Edition, from Computer Associates offers a powerful, flexible solution for organisation-wide protection against non-viral malware that helps companies minimise risk and improve productivity without increasing administrative overhead.

Understanding Spyware, Adware, and Other Pests
Today’s computer users are under attack from spyware, adware, hacker tools, and other unsolicited applications that are often installed without the user’s permission or knowledge. Collectively known as “pests” or “non-viral malware,” these malicious applications can perform a host of activities ranging from nuisances such as surreptitiously tracking web-surfing habits and displaying unsolicited advertisements, to potentially devastating actions such as reconfiguring operating systems and web browsers, monitoring email, logging and transmitting keystrokes (including passwords), and compromising access to confidential data.

Corporate Liabilities from Spyware, Adware, and Other Non-Viral Malware
When pests enter a business, they have the potential to introduce significant legal liabilities, compromise trade secrets, damage corporate reputation, and reduce employee productivity throughout the organisation. Businesses should be aware that, regardless of their location, they are subject to these regulations if they serve customers in the areas governed by these laws. In fact, data privacy and security regulation is so widespread that a single breach could place a company at risk for penalties under any number of national or international laws.

Compromised Trade Secrets
Malware such as hacker tools, keyloggers, and other security-compromising programs can provide unauthorized access to confidential data such as intellectual property and customer or price lists and other proprietary information. While no data protected by privacy legislation is affected, such breaches can cause businesses to lose competitive advantage.

Reduced IT staff productivity
The presence of spyware and adware in a company reduces the productivity of IT staff responsible for maintaining employee systems. For example, Dell Computer estimates that 12 percent of technical support calls from customers are spyware-related; companies that manage their own technical support likely experience similar or even greater numbers of spyware-related complaints. Manually identifying and removing unwanted applications can take up to an hour per computer, directly impacting the amount of time that IT staff can dedicate to strategic business related projects.

Increased spam
Because some pests harvest email addresses, their presence probably contributes to the ever-growing problem of unsolicited commercial email.

Wasted bandwidth
Because spyware, adware, and similar applications transmit and receive information across the network, bandwidth that should be available for customers, partners, and employees may instead be occupied delivering tracking information to third-party servers and advertisements to desktops.

Proliferation of Spyware, Adware, and Other Pests
While statistics vary, one trend is clear: spyware, adware, and other pests are on the rise.  One recent study conducted by Information Week magazine indicates that nearly one in three computers currently hosts a trojan horse or an activity-monitoring application; industry experts estimate that the average PC has approximately 28 pieces of spyware installed. The situation is expected to worsen as the number and severity of malicious non-viral applications increase, and as new vulnerabilities and entry methods are identified and exploited.

Introducing eTrust PestPatrol Corporate Edition
eTrust(tm) PestPatrol® Anti-Spyware Corporate Edition is a comprehensive anti-spyware solution that provides powerful protection from spyware, adware, trojan horses, denial-of-service attack agents, and other backdoor web-based threats that can expose confidential information and diminish PC performance. The software complements existing anti-virus and firewall installations to protect against the many kinds of non-viral malware that can evade existing security technologies, compromise corporate privacy, and consume valuable computing resources.

From installation through administration, eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware Corporate Edition puts the controls at your fingertips and provides scalable system-wide protection for the end user. eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware Corporate Edition is backed by CA Security Advisor, the security industry's leading research team.

How PestPatrol Corporate Edition Works
PestPatrol Corporate Edition:

• Scans all or selected file types and directories
• Quarantines or deletes any or all pests detected
• Provides real-time protection by scanning system memory for active pests and terminating associated processes
• Cleans pests from Windows Registry and start-up areas, ensuring that “dormant” pests are not activated when the system is rebooted
• Automatically removes cookies before they can capture any sensitive information
• Reports all activities to a central log
• Downloads and distributes updates automatically

To find out more about pest patrol call us now on 01296 505321 or email information@compusys.co.uk