RE: Spy Software

["Seth Connolly" <sethc () firstcash com>]

Take a look at this:  http://web.interhack.com/news/n2002_spector.php

<snip>

"People might believe that they're simply using a software package that will
show them what their children, employees, or others are doing," said Matt
Curtin, Interhack's Founder and author of Developing Trust: Online Privacy
and Security (Apress, 2001). "What they might not realize, however, is that
they're also enabling Spectorsoft to see what is being done on their
machines. In effect, parents using this software are showing Spectorsoft
what their children are doing on the computer. Employers might be
compromising the privacy of their own proprietary data."

</snip>

That could be a good point to use to get out of installing Spector Pro in
the office.

Seth

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Pachito [mailto:alpyha () prodigy net]
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 6:35 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Spy Software


Hello, I administer workstations for a small company and the boss recently
asked me to isntall sofware called "Spector Pro".  It is a 'spy' utility
that captures keystrokes, e-mails, instant-messages (YIM,AIM,ICQ), and takes
screen shots every X amount of time.

What I was wondering is how exactly does this program hide itself in the
system.  I've called their techs a few times to end with a repsonse of 'we
are not authorized to disclose such information'.

The recorded data is saved in a C:\winnt\system32\netext\ folder but no
exec.  There is nothing unusual listed in Task Manager that would lead me to
the application running in the background.  Would anyone happen to know how
exactly this application works.  I believe a user would have the right to
know what is running on their system, and I'm kinda ticked off that Spector
Soft denys such information.


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