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October 2004		Highlights \| In the News \| Publications \| Policy & Standards Update \| Hot Links
Workshops / Events • 14th Annual RSA Conference. RSA Security. February 14-18, 2005. San Francisco, CA • Identity Theft Solutions, Sacramento Convention Center on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. • O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. March 14-17, 2005. San Diego, CA • CFP2005: 15th Annual Conf on Computers, Freedom and Privacy. April 12-15, 2005, Seattle WA • 2005 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. May 8-11, 2005, Berkeley, CA • Freedom 2.0 - Distributed Democracy. May 20-24, 2005, Washington D.C.		spyware

		Highlight on Spyware Spyware can log keystrokes, scan computers for email addresses and credit card numbers, read cookies, watch what is going on with other applications, and send personal information to someone else. Spyware also uses computer resources and hogs bandwidth. The SpyAudit report, produced by Earthlink and Webroot Software, indicated there were 83,000,000 instances of spyware found on 3,000,000 scanned computers. This averages out to 26 instances of spyware on each computer. Just as it is vital to stop viruses and worms from infecting computers, there must be keen awareness that spyware is likely present on most machines and should be dealt with. The State Security Office is sponsoring a spyware seminar on November 17th from 2:30 until 4:00 in the 17th floor conference room of the Union building in Little Rock. Come hear about strategies for how to get rid of spyware and keep it from taking over users' computers. Presenters will include Tim Stoddard, UALR’s Network Security Officer; Ted Clouser and Sky Brower from PC Assistance; and Mary Henthorn, Office of Information Technology. In the News FTC Seeks Court Order To Stop Alleged Spyware Operation - “We’re putting purveyors of spyware on notice..." More... A poll by Harris Survey for Websense, Inc., showed 92% of polled IT managers said their organizations had been infected with spyware -- with an average of 29% of their corporate PCs infected. But only 6% of employees said they have ever visited any web sites at work that contain spyware. More... McAfee’s top 10 threats for the first half of the year included four spyware/adware programs. More... About a year ago, Ben Stein, VP of IT infrastructure at online trader OptionsXpress, concluded that spyware was more than just a nuisance--it had emerged as a significant security threat. More...	State Policy and Standards Watch Promulgated Policies and Standards Password Management (PDF) Warning Banner (PDF) Virus Scanning (PDF) Personnel Security (PDF) Draft Policies and Standards Under Development Data and System Security Classification Standard (MS Word) Guidelines for Data and System Security Classification Standard (MS Word) Hot Links Spyware Information and Tools Center for Democracy & Technology/Spyware FTC Spyware Workshop April 2004 GetNetWise - "Spotlight on Spyware" New Federal Spy Block Act Spyware Warrior Spyware Warrior (Forums) Spyware Warrior (Blog)
		Publications Spyware / Privacy Ghosts in Our Machines: Background and Policy Proposals on the “Spyware” Problem Center for Democracy and Technology - November, 2003 Over the last several years, a loosely defined collection of computer software known as “spyware” has become the subject of growing public alarm. Computer users are increasingly finding programs on their computers that they did not know were installed and that they cannot uninstall, that create privacy problems and open security holes, that can hurt the performance and stability of their systems, and that can lead them to mistakenly believe that these problems are the fault of another application or their Internet provider.
		© 2004