Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, November 2,2005 - FIVE
Internet Security - Malicious and Irritating
By Pat Struthers
You’ve updated W indows; you’ve installed a
firewall. You’re using safer browsing and e-mail software.
You re-check for updates on all these things regularly.
Nothing evil can get in, right? Why should I do more? Am
I not safe now?
Yes and no. If you’ve taken care of all the things
above, it is very unlikely a malicious person or software
program will be able to find your computer on the Internet,
much less attack it. That’s at least half the battle. But even
the most heavily secured computer or network still gets
infected occasionally. Why does this happen?
In order for the Internet to be usable at all, your
security software has to make some assumptions: it has to
trust the Internet ‘client’ programs that you use. These
include your browser, your e-mail program, your instant
messaging program, Napster/iTunes clients, etc. etc. Using
safer clients helps, but that can only go so far; even they
have to trust another link in the system: yourself. The vast
majority of successful ‘malware’ infections happen because
you, the user, are tricked into opening an attachment to an
e-mail or clicking on an enticing ad in a web page. Everyone
has probably done this at least once. Let’s not dwell on
blame <smirk> at this point, and deal with the mess. What
could happen, and how will we fix it?
First, the damage. There’s a lot of overlap between
the various categories of malicious software; and also a lot
of range of intent, so to speak.
Viruses are small programs that attach themselves
to software you already have, using those programs to
propagate themselves. Trojans are stand-alone programs
that trick the user into running them; they are often attached
to an e-mail message. The damage is done when the e-mail
user opens the attachment. Both viruses and trojans may
exhibit other bad behavior beyond reproducing themselves,
such as installing spyware or bots, or even actually
damaging your computer in some way. The creation of
viruses and trojans is an obviously malicious act.
Spyware and adware are a little different. Internet
Explorer and other browsers are explicitly designed to be
as flexible as possible, giving web-designers and their clients
more ways of presenting information as new techniques
are invented. Browsers can allow web pages to install plug
in software, change menus, add controls and features, etc.
All of these things were originally intended to be beneficial
rather than annoying, and reasonable management these
features do make the Internet more useful. But this flexibility
is easily exploited to serve the purposes of the web-designer,
not always for the user’s benefit. The first spyware was
designed simply to gather information about a web site’s
customers, for marketing purposes or to trade to other
companies. Adware had the similarly benign purpose of
leveraging advertising, either through pop-up ads or by
customizing your browser or e-mail program.
But this type of software can quickly get out of
hand. The ‘enhancement’ may simply badly written, so that
it clogs or even breaks your browser. It may be shareware
that annoys you with obnoxious ads and messages after
the trial period is up. It may open holes in your system that
makes it vulnerable to other attacks. Your browser may
become so riddled that it monopolizes all your connect
time juggling a hurricane of pop-ups, search bars, and
animation. All of these may have originally written for
innocent purposes. And inevitably some are not; at this point
spyw are and adw are b e h a v io r is p re tty m uch
indistinguishable from that of a virus.
If these annoying or malicious programs are allowed
to run unchecked on your computer for long period of time,
they can badly damage the system software. You may have
to install the system again from scratch. You may or may
not be able to save your valuable data, depending on how
Rockin' Cardinal Readers paint
pumpkins at lone Community
School
bad the damage is. So you must have a way to detect and
remove them, and repair the damage before it becomes
too extensive to fix.
M ost new com puters com e with pretty good
security software already installed, but there’s often a catch:
it’s a commercial product (like Norton Internet Security
or McAfee Security Suite) that is bundled with the machine.
In a year or 15 months or 2 years you will get nasty
messages on your computer asking you to pay the company
more money. If you don't do this, the program may simply
turn off. At best, it will no longer update itself regularly
and, sooner or later, some new threat will come along that
it can’t handle. Many users experience NO virus/spyware
infections during the registration period and derive a false
sense of security; they figure they can do without it for ‘a
little while’. This ‘little while’ may stretch into months or
years, with obvious consequences.
No single product can cover all the vulnerabilities
which now exist, and whether it is active or not, very
popular Windows-based software tends to suffer from the
same disease as Windows itself. As a product gets older
and the market share gets larger, the software company
gets complacent. New features are added; bugs are ignored
with the hope that the next version will cure them; the
program gets larger and larger and harder and harder to
maintain; bugs proliferate. The very popularity of these
programs can make them a specific target for viruses and
spyware. Bugs and ‘features’ can be exploited to sneak by,
Pictured left to right: TJ Patton, Lauren Garrett, Jazmyn
turn off, or even cripple your security software.
DuBry, and Joe Doherty with their pumpkins.
Are there alternatives? When the license on your
commercial product runs out, you could use one of the
many *free* security programs that are available on the
Internet:
Antivirus-
avast! Home (www.atwil.com) - 60-day trial, 1-
year web registration. Updates over the web, a run fast
and includes background scanning o f the activity of many
web clients, including browsers and e-mail.
AVG Free Edition (www.grisoft.com) — Updates
via web. Background scanning. Probably the most popular
free anti-virus program. Commercial version includes
network scanning and firewall.
Spyware-
S pybot S earch & D estro y ( w w w .safer-
networking.org) — Web updateable. Background scanning.
Regular backups of Windows registry and immunization
of common web clients and system software.
SpywareBlaster — (www.javacoolsoftware.com)
— More comprehensive detection and repair, specifically
for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
Adware-
A d-A w are SE ( w w w .lav aso ft.co m ) — Web
updateable. To remove adware and other unwanted browser
plugins, Ad-Aware is essential. It has a lower threshold of
tolerance for browser modifications than most anti-spyware
packages.
Spybot, SpywareBlaster, and Ad-Aware should all
be used; their responsibilities DO overlap somewhat but
between them they cover all the bases. The free versions of
these products all enjoy excellent reviews from a wide array
of experts, including non-profit web sites specializing in
secu rity . A ll o f them are u p g rad eab le to m ore
comprehensive commercial packages, and they generally
refrain from bothering you with ads and upgrade notices.
E xcellent softw are speaks for itself, and needs no
advertisement.
Wedding Tabl es
Ja cq u elin e F o o s anti Allan G rilisb ov, II
Wedding
SEW WHAT
-
S a tu rd a y, N ovem ber IQlh
Jodi J o h n sto n and M ik e I land
F o r A ii Y o u r S o w in g M ood s
Wedding - S a tu rd a y, N ovem ber 2 6 th
- Professional Embroidery -
D ia n e McTetridg'e and Kelly M organ
245 NW Main, Suite 200, lone
(541) 422-9000
H o u rs: M o n d a y - F r id a y 8 - 5
Shou 'cr
-
S a tu rd a y, N ovem ber 5th
Wedding
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S atu rday, N ovem ber 2 6 th
C h r is tin e Watt and Irent H u g h e s
Sh ow er - Friday, N ovem ber ISth
Wedding
Estate
^
By DAVID SYKES
- /
attu ar y ,
2006
MuMfflj'i DflUJ
217 North Main • Heppner
Phone 676-9158 • Floral 676-9426
REALTOR
Serving Heppner, Lexington & lone
TAX D ED U C TIB LE LOAN
In the past, trade-up buy
ers tended to roll over all the
eq u ity fro m th e ir previous
home into the new home. Then
they took out loans to furnish
the house or buy a new car.
That no longer makes good fis
cal sense, since consumer in
terest is no longer tax deduct
ible. Yet, many trade-up buy
ers find it hard to change buy
ing habits.
Buyers moving up to a new
home today have a unique op
portunity to save money and
im prove their financial p ic
ture. T he form ula? B orro w
Past Real Estate columns and
property listings are available
at www.heppner.net/heritage
more on the new house and use
the cash for furnishings, land
scaping. or a car or to save for
future financial needs, such as
college expenses. By making
a low down payment, buyers
can m axim ize their mortgage
interest deduction and low er
their after-tax payments.
T his lo w dow n paym ent
strategy isn’ t fo r everyone.
The ideal candidate is a move-
up buyer who has a strong in
co m e, substantial cash re
serves and good credit.
M.C.6.8.
Morrow County [Grain Growers «
LEXINGTON, OREGON
1-800-452-7396 • 989-8221
WASCO, OREGON
1-800-824-7185
www.mcfjg.net
SUPPORTING YOUR COMMUNITY
AND PROVIDING:
* PROPANE SALES AND SERVICE
* FARM EQUIPMENT SALES. PARTS AND SERVICE
* ATV SALES. PARTS AND SERVICE
180 W. Baltimore #5
Heppner, OR 97836
* FERTILIZER AND FARM CHEMICAL SERVICE
* FARM SUPPLIES AND LIVESTOCK EQUIPMENT
itÀttagp JÇpndCb.
* DIESEL AND GAS SALES
REALTOR 01
541-676-9228
<¿6
case
nt
■ K a w a sa k i
Let the good times roti
For the entire month of October, students in grades
K-5 read like crazy to meet their individual reading goals
for Accelerated Reader, a program purchased with a grant
from the lone Education Foundation. On Thursday, every
K-5 student was able to paint a pumpkin as their reward
for meeting their individual reading goals. At the end of
this week each classroom will have a popcorn and movie
party to celebrate meeting classroom goals.
“ We sim ply use A ccelerated R eader as an
enhancement to our literacy program to motivate students
to read. There is no competition amongst students for
points, only a challenge for each student to reach their
individual goal which they set together with their teacher.”
explains Bryn Browning, administrator for lone School
District. “This program is successful due to the enthusiasm
from our teachers and this is the first year the entire
elementary is using the program.” Students in the middle
school also use the program to motivate students to read.
What is Accelerated reader? Students pre-test to
find their
personal reading level, check out and read books
from the library or classroom collections and then take a
short test to earn points. To track individual and classroom
goals, a tree was set up in the elementary hallway with
branches for each class. As the days of the month progress,
the classroom cardinal and individual student cardinals
move across the branch toward the 100% mark. Every
Monday morning begins w ith a quick K-5 assembly in the
hallway where students chant reading cheers and sing songs.
Special thanks to Stacie Miller who donated the
pumpkins from her family farm in Springfield. Oregon.
Heppner Jn/Sr. High Booster
Club to meet
The Heppner High Booster Club will be meeting
on Nov. 8 at the High School Home Economics room at 7
p.m.
i