Be Aware of Spyware and Adware
by Bill Rose, SSPA Founder/Executive Director

Whether you know it as spyware or adware; or by one of its less common names like snoopware or sneakware, odds are your support organization has to deal with these covert little software applications in one way or another. For your customers, the affect spyware has can range from being a nuisance, to deteriorating performance, to being a real threat to information security. At the very least, spyware is perceived as enough of a threat that some anti-virus software vendors are starting to include anti-spyware functionality in their applications, while ISPs are beginning to offer anti-spyware functionality to their users.

What is spyware? Spyware is a software application that secretly installs itself on machines and gathers information about the user by monitoring activity (keystrokes, clicks, preferences, and more). Users most often infect their machines by downloading applications or when surfing the web or opening an HTML email. Many of these applications simply store user information and preferences (e.g. cookies) to help create more customized user experiences when visiting web sites. Others can capture keystrokes and send them back to the spyware originators.

How big a problem is it? In published reports, Dell says that 12% of its tech support calls are the result of spyware issues (PC World, April 19, 2004). In another report (Windows Network, April 21), Microsoft asserts that spyware accounts for more than half of reported Windows failures and Microsoft partners claim that spyware has become their number-one support problem. According to Dell’s Maureen Cushman, part of the company’s consumer business group, support calls attributed to spyware, “are longer and require much more troubleshooting…”

Spyware can have legitimate uses like building a user profile to enable a vendor or web site to recognize users and better serve them. The problem comes when there are so many instances of spyware/adware installed, performance suffers and users call tech support for help. In reality, what’s perceived as a hardware or software problem is just a matter of resources being used by these other applications without any user knowledge. In most cases, using one of the commercially-available anti-spyware applications will take care of most of the problem. Be aware there are instances where a spyware application modifies the Windows registry. In those cases, the spyware application can usually be quarantined which protects the machine’s integrity but this can be a problem as these files accumulate and take up resources.

As Executive Director of SSPA, my role is to look out over the horizon, try to filter through all the noise and news being made, and find out what’s actually important to the industry. I believe that spyware is a major problem for support organizations and will become an even bigger problem in the future, particularly for companies delivering consumer-based hardware and software. (When I recently ran an anti-spyware application on my machine, it found 20 pieces of spyware running.) It’s enough of a problem that we’ve scheduled a Power Panel at our Savannah conference, October 3-6, on just this problem titled: Spyware – Tech Support’s Worst Nightmare.

To ensure that the panel delivers the information support organizations need to effectively battle this problem, I need your input. You can help validate my assumptions by answering questions like:

• Is the problem really more acute for providers of consumer products?
  
• What percentage of your support problems are attributed to spyware?
  
• Is it an issue for your support organization’s desktops?

If you have an opinion or perspective on spyware, pro or con, and its affect on technical support, please email me at: bill.rose@thesspa.com. That information will better focus the panel discussion and other articles we deliver to members.

Your direction will help guide us in delivering the information you need.

Sincerely,


Bill Rose
SSPA Founder/Executive Director