I have been researching a bit about Internet Security and privacy, mostly out of necessity.  I am on a cable modem, and as anyone who knows about security issues will tell you, a full time, high bandwidth connection creates some serious issues.  In short, I have had to defend my machine against the now common practice of port scans among other things. For the benefit of those who do not know, let me highlight and briefly explain some of the more common threats to your machine and privacy and methods that they use. 

Please note that all software I refer to for protection of privacy and damage control, will be linked to, either from the text directly, or from the bottom of this page. I also include some links to references on supporting information.  It it not my intent to "slander" any software company that I may make mention of, but rather simply point out what has been noticed and discovered by others on the Net.  By the time you complete this article, you may never again view the Internet in quite the same light.

What's important to understand is, it is not important if you don't have anything of value, or confidential on your machine.  Many times, the party trying to gain access is interested in your identity and not your possessions.  With your identity and your internet access, he may reach out from your machine to breach more important security issues (like bank, corporate or government machines), or cause general havoc, and do so IN YOUR NAME.  

And if breaking INTO your machine weren't enough to worry about, the new breed of security breach involves your machine reaching OUT to THEM.   Let me explain.  No doubt, by now you have heard of a certain breed of "virus's" referred to as  TROJANS.  These mini programs are configured to plant themselves in your machine and then either "phone home" to their "master server" and /or give complete control of your machine to the man behind the curtain.  For a good (and rather lengthy) read on this subject, please take a look at an article written by Steve Gibson, a  renown expert in the field of Network Security. In this article, he shows how even a 13 year old can cause HUGE problems by using YOUR machine. 

You may have also heard of Worms.  Worms are virus's that spread themselves by E-Mailing a copy of itself  to everyone in your address book, without your knowledge nor consent.  This is why it is very important to not accept files via e-mail, even from those you know, without prior knowledge of it's arrival.  The party "sending" you the file, may not even know that the file was sent.  The great majority of worm type virus's only affect users of Microsoft's Outlook or Outlook Express, by taking advantage of  security holes which are continually being found by technical users (and then patched by Microsoft).  I have circumvented all of that by simply using other e-mail software. 

And while owning and using competent virus protection software is a good start, it is not the end all of the situation.  These malicious little programs are being written in many variations on the theme, and by the hundreds.  You may get a virus today, that just yesterday wasn't known and therefore it is not protected against.  You should not only own and use virus protection, but you should be sure to update the data files at the very least, once a month.  

And while hardware based firewalls will do a fair job at keeping unwanted external connections from connecting to your machine, they do little about stopping trojan, adware and spyware software from making an external connection FROM your machine.   This is where software based firewall solutions come in.   Many of these software firewalls are free (while they offer you an option to upgrade to a professional, more featured version at a price).  What they do is run quietly in the background, monitoring all of your network activity.  And every time a program which has not previously requested a connection to the outside world, makes such a request, it asks you for permission to allow it.  At that point you may choose to allow or deny the request, for either just this instance, or permanently.  And so it keeps a database of your "permissions" and regulates your connections based on that.  Certainly a tool that NO Internet user should be without, and in most cases for most users, the free versions of these programs are all that you'd need.  

Then there is Adware.  Adware is generally free software which earns the author revenue based on advertising sponsors.  You are presented with banner ads for the duration of your usage.  I make the distinction between honest,  deception and fraud, where adware is concerned, based on the honesty of the company or author of the software which implements it.   There are many freeware programs that will tell you right up front that their product is adware.  Some even go to great depths at explaining what that means, including if the program sends data back to a database.  And while I personally don't mind allowing an advertisement to be displayed in lieu of payment for good software (someone's got to pay the bills) I DO have a BIG problem with data from my machine being harvested and then transmitted to some remote server someplace for others to read. The portion of the code which does this, is referred to as spyware.  These companies can tell me that they are not harvesting personal information, but how would I know if they did?  I wouldn't, and that's my point.  If they want demographic information , they should simply ask for it as some programs already do.   I have no problem giving them what they need to make a living, and support their programming efforts.   There is also freeware and shareware that implements only spyware technology, offering no clue whatsoever that information may be harvested from your machine.

The instant I catch a program sending information out of my machine without asking me first, I uninstall it and run various software which exposes adware/spyware elements and destroys it.  Adware/Spyware  programs are becoming the "norm" at quite an alarming rate.   I have been an avid collector of freeware for more than 14  years.  But never before have I seen such commonplace misuse of  software than I have for the past 2 years. What gives these authors the right to decide what information I am willing to share?   

If you run a firewall program such as Zone Alarm or Tiny Personal Firewall, you will know when any program attempts to establish an internet connection to another server.  A program has no right to make such a connection until it's TOLD to.  If it makes such an attempt the second you boot it up, then it's probably phoning home! - unless of course, if  the program is connecting as configured by you.

We all have tossed around the term "Big Brother" for decades.  And so, why are we surprised when we actually find proof of "him", right here in our own homes and businesses?  And Big Brother does not even have to be government or big business.  It can be our next door neighbors.  It seems that the awesome power of the Internet is a twin edged sword. The information and tools you need to take your privacy and security issues into your own hands, exists on the Internet also.  But it's up to you to implement it.   Protect your interests!!  

What I found was quite interested, and angering at the same time. This is apparently a new breed of spyware/adware which, if removed from the users system using conventional methods, renders the networking of the machine totally useless. It's bad enough that these companies wish to install functions on our machines, behind our backs and without permission, but now some of them are trying to stop us from defending our rights and our privacy?

The story behind the above mentioned file is, this is a spyware/adware installed library file, which "binds" itself to your system with a run key in your system registry, and via your rundll32 application. It poises itself as a browser plugin, and reports back to it's server in this fashion.

Spyware and Adware, to date, has been typically attached to freeware by it's author, as a part of the program itself and is usually "announced" if even in the fine print of the application. This is one method of earning some capitol for the freeware being supplied. THIS latest incarnation of the theme, brought to you by Newdotnet (a company which sells some of the new domains which are becoming available) is being distributed by software which does not even use the conventional methods, and TOTALLY behind the end users back. It is reported that these companies which bundle the spyware in their software are getting 5 cents for every successful installation on non-suspecting "victims" machines. What is the Internet coming to, when a software author is willing to compromise the privacy (and in this case, the very operating system) of his users, for a NICKEL?!? I find this infuriating!

Please protect yourself and your machine by visiting http://www.cexx.org/newnet.htm for the entire story, and also for information on checking your machine for this awful  invasion, and if necessary, removal instructions.

FREE Alternatives to Outlook and Outlook Express

Helpful Security and Privacy Links

Virus Protection

A disappointing experience with McAfee

Other related links of interest

A MUST read!!

Big Business wants to invade your
privacy all the more!!

Electronic Privacy Information Center

I'll be adding more to these links as I find them.   If you find something of interest for this links page, please do contact me with the find.   I'll be more than happy to add it to this page.