{"id":695,"date":"2005-08-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/2005\/08\/22\/us-cert-report-on-spyware\/"},"modified":"2021-12-30T11:37:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T11:37:58","slug":"us-cert-report-on-spyware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/2005\/08\/22\/us-cert-report-on-spyware\/","title":{"rendered":"US-Cert report on spyware"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US-Cert has published a report on spyware, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.us-cert.gov\/reading_room\/spyware.pdf\">http:\/\/www.us-cert.gov\/reading_room\/spyware.pdf<\/a>, a 15-page document that includes an overview, definition and examples of different types of threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting on page 10 defensive measures are outlined, emphasizing education and awareness.<\/p>\n<p>It notes that social engineering is a major means of distributing spyware by tricking users into downloading and installing malware.<\/p>\n<li>Don&#8217;t trust unknown or known high-risk sources.\n<li>Read the fine print.\n<li>Pay attention when installing applications.\n<li>Keep operating systems and software patched.\n<li>If you are running Windows XP, install Service Pack 2.\n<li>Use trusted anti-virus and anti-spyware tools.\n<li>Alternative internet applications\n<li>Browser configuration. <\/li>\n<p>If I had to pick the single most important recommendation in the list, it would be to keep your operating system and software patched, including updating Windows XP to Service Pack 2.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of spyware and malware is being spread through exploits.<\/p>\n<p>Much of this can be prevented by keeping Windows updated and avoiding high risk sources, as stated in the first recommendation.<\/p>\n<p>Porn sites and sites with illegal content, cracks, hacks and warez, are usually the worst offenders.<\/p>\n<p>Lyrics and wrestling sites are also known offenders.<\/p>\n<p>The report includes references that are also excellent sources of more information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3182,"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/3182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cybersecurityinstitute.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}