14 DAY TRIAL // Aladdin eSafe Content Security Response Team (CSRT) conducted a two-month analysis of the top 2,000 known spyware threats.
The Aladdin eSafe CSRT study found that a staggering 15 percent of spyware threats actually steal passwords and log keystrokes, while also attempting to steal logged-on user names, the hash of administrator passwords, instant messaging usage and email addresses.
The study illustrates that a growing amount of spyware is specifically designed for identity theft and continues to compromise both personal and commercial privacy, with potentially dangerous effects for large organizations in need of protecting proprietary information.
The study classifies spyware into three clear types:
Severe Threat - Fifteen percent of spyware threats send private information gathered from the end user currently logged on to the infected system: logging the user's keystrokes, logged-on user name, hash of administrator passwords, email addresses, contacts, instant messengers login and usage, and more.
Moderate Threat - Twenty Five percent of spyware sends information gathered from the victim's operating system, including the computer (host) name, domain name, logs of all processes running in memory, installed programs, security applications, client's internal IP address, OS version, the existence and versions of service packs and security updates, TCP ports the spyware is listening to, Computer Security Identifier (SID), default browser's homepage, browser plug-ins, etc.
Minor Threat - Sixty percent of spyware transmits gathered commercial-value information about the end user's browsing habits. This includes keywords used in search engines, browsing habits and ratings of frequently visited websites, shopping reports etc.
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