Spyware has arrived for the Mac!

[giza]

I saw this posting on Slashdot about some spyware being included in a recent release of Limewire. Interesting stuff, if a bit of a downer. The forum that the article links to is here.

For those who run Macs and are concerned about spyware (or other applications) making outgoing network connections, I highly recommend Little Snitch. It's great for blocking outbound connections from software on your machine. I found out that a few games I had were trying to "phone home" this way.

I also recommend very strongly against Netbarrier. I think their site is full of hype and potentially misleading. For example, they claim that their software will "control incoming TCP/IP traffic". That's a fairly absurd claim, because by default, OS X has no TCP ports listening on your machine. Furthermore, if you are behind a NATing firewall (if your machine's IP is 192.168.1.*, then YES, you are), connections being made from the outside Internet your machine just aren't going to happen.

Netbarrier also claims to "protect against ping of death", "stop unknown packets", and "protect against port scans". These claims are just silly, for all of these are easily handled by any modern kernel. They also claim that their product "provides TCP sequence scrambling". I don't know what they mean by that, but if it's random initial sequence generation, that's already done by the kernel. Trying to claim that their product is doing it is just false advertising. These people are essentially creating an environment of fear, and then trying to sell their product on it. (Fear. Not just for Republicans anymore!)

So far as blocking outbound connection attempts, Little Snitch does everything that Net Barrier claims to do, but without the hype, and at less than half the price.

Comments

[boixboi.livejournal.com]

Ohh, fear has been recognized as a highly effective method of advertising long before Republicans ever got into the game.

[thraxarious.livejournal.com]

Often sites that sell spyware removers and blockers are spyware themselves. and with some of the nasty IE holes and other tidbits there, just browsing the page there is likely to infect people.

[randomzen.livejournal.com]

Didn't you learn anything from your past job? You sell the SIZZLE, not the steak. Oh yah, and you fool the fucking piss out of the old and dumb until they unleash their billing information.

[balinares.livejournal.com]

> You sell the SIZZLE, not the steak.

This rocks. Where does this expression come from? Or did you make it up, just like that? :)

Marketing

[randomzen.livejournal.com]

Oh, that phrase has been around long before my own birth.