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Article: Spyware revealed; While it often has been reported that spyware steals personal information, it often is less clear what spyware actually is, where it comes from and who's most at risk. Here's the real picture.(BUSINESS)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- September 28, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Steve Alexander; Staff Writer
What is spyware?
Despite all the publicity about spyware being a new threat - stuff that seeps into your computer like sludge when you visit the wrong website or download the wrong free software - it's remarkably like the computer virus threats that preceded it, experts say.
"Spyware does not do anything new," said Bob Hansmann, senior product marketing manager for Trend Micro, a Japanese computer security firm with U.S. headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. "It is simply taking existing and proven threat techniques and packaging them for different purposes - to generate money for the authors" by stealing credit card numbers, ...