CIS Overview

Computing Standards

Software Info

Y2K Info

The old saying of "What you see is what you get" doesn’t necessarily hold true these days, especially when it comes to computer programs, according to Lab Computer Protection Program Manager Jim Rothfuss. Some programs ostensibly do one thing, but secretly do another, usually nefarious task. One such malicious program has been in the news lately. It goes by several names: picture.exe, manager.exe, or URLsnoop. When an unsuspecting victim runs the program (by double clicking on it), the names of all the websites that the victim has recently visited are collected and sent to a site in China. If the victim is a member of AmericaOnLine, their AOL user name and password is also snatched.

As scary as this may sound, it is nothing new. Programs that are advertised to one thing and then do another have been around a long time. They have been given the name Trojan horses, after the "gift" horse built by the ancient Greeks as a ruse to slip soldiers into the walled city of Troy. What it boils down to is that any program sent to you could be a Trojan horse in disguise.

Here's the bottom line. Only run programs on your computer that you can trust! If the program is purchased from a legitimate company ... great! You are also on firm ground downloading from websites that have a reputation to protect (such as Netscape or Microsoft). If you download a program from a website with a name like www.HACKERS.org, big red "Warning" signs should go off in your mind. And finally, never run a program that your friend got from a friend of a friend.

Rothfuss sees an analogy to a long-ago weight-loss product. By eating the candy-like product, consumers were guaranteed to lose weight. Unbeknownst to them, however, was the fact that the product caused a tapeworm to grow inside the user -- and this parasite was the miracle behind the weight reductions! "Be careful whenever someone offers you something new or unfamiliar for your system," Rothfuss said. "We don't want any electronic tapeworms growing in our computers."