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Security Threats Won't Let Up This Year: Page 3 of 6

It's already under way. In July, one person pleaded guilty in federal court to installing key-logging software at several Kinko's Inc. locations in Manhattan. For more than a year, he collected the keystrokes of the customers of the printing and copying chain, including passwords and user names, and used that data to fraudulently open bank accounts. A Boston College student was caught using a similar application to steal student passwords and other information from more than 100 PCs at the campus.

The number of tools available to combat spyware is growing, and they're getting more effective. They're offered by software vendors that specialize in standalone spyware-removal apps, such as offerings from PestPatrol Inc. and Webroot Software Inc., which have apps to scan and remove spyware. And antivirus vendors such as Symantec Corp. and Network Associates Inc. have begun adding spyware-detection and -removal software to their antivirus apps.

Spyware also is attracting the attention of politicians. Lawmakers are expected this year to introduce a new version of the Safeguard Against Privacy Invasions Act, a bill to prohibit spyware. Reps. Mary Bono, R-Calif., and Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., have been working with privacy-rights groups and the IT industry to refine the bill. One of the primary goals of the act is to direct the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit the installation of spyware on computers used by financial institutions or the federal government, unless the user first agrees to the snooping.

Another trend that experts expect to see this year is more spammers making use of virus-writing tools and techniques. Spammers are using the tools of virus writers to anonymously send their ads. Vincent Weafer, senior director of development at Symantec, says spammers will continue to use viruses and Trojan horses to infect computers so they can then use those machines to anonymously send out waves of E-mail. "They're now turning to home-user and small-business systems," Weafer says. "They're hijacking tens of thousands of vulnerable systems and turning them into anonymous spam mailers."

More than 65% of the spam messages intercepted by E-mail security firm MessageLabs, which filters spam and viruses for companies, are sent from PCs that have been hijacked by spammers and transformed into spam relays, the company reports. This trend came to light with the Sobig.F virus. At the peak, MessageLabs says one in every 17 E-mails it intercepted contained a copy of the Sobig.F virus. By Dec. 1, it had stopped more than 32 million E-mails infected with the virus.