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| | I have windows vista, I hear about employers and other such types installing hidden monitoring programs on computers. How do i find these hidden programs on my vista? |
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| Simple question -- not a simple answer. Monitoring can be accomplished via a couple of very different approaches. First, SW can be installed locally to the machine, which then logs keystrokes, emails, internet addresses, and the like, and either sends that info out through an open port, or saves it for later data collection. It might be possible to install SW on the machine and then hide the directory, while still having it monitor the machine actions. Second, much the same can be done by connecting remotely to the machine from outside and capturing the same info.
The particulars of how it's done, what programs are installed, what connections are needed are going to vary by the specific product used. So, there's no single generic answer that will enable you to scan your machine for the "culprits" and remove them.
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| danny1013 (12/25/2007)
I have windows vista, I hear about employers and other such types installing hidden monitoring programs on computers. How do i find these hidden programs on my vista?If your employer is doing that I'd be surprised if you even had enough security rights to really go searching for the stuff anywho. I work for .GOV and we are locked down so tight that we can't even bring up Task Manager on most of the machines.
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| I think he had more of a generic question.
I, too, have worked for Government projects and in those cases, machines are segregated into physically separate domains/networks/subnets and, as you have indicated, are also generally restricted so that the users can change little or nothing on the box. Internet access in such cases is also generally prevented along with some heavy-duty email filtering. You can only run the software they provide, you can't install anything of your own, you can't access the internet, you're restricted to the in-house email system, etc. I've not encountered keylogging or other such "spyware" in such environments because the functionality is so restricted, that such logs would be a waste of time.
If he's NOT on a Government project, and his employer is doing keylogging, or something similar, they're also likely to have a company policy in place such that if he's discovered searching for such stuff, that can be used as grounds for termination. After all, the reality is that companies can fire you for anything! You're the one that has to hire a lawyer, spend the money, and take THEM to court to get your job back -- and unless you have 30K$ to spend, and five years to waste, they're not going to worry about you doing that.
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Running: XP Pro, Vista Ultimate 32-bit, Vista Business, Ubuntu 7.10, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
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| WAW8 (1/4/2008)
I think he had more of a generic question.
I, too, have worked for Government projects and in those cases, machines are segregated into physically separate domains/networks/subnets and, as you have indicated, are also generally restricted so that the users can change little or nothing on the box. Internet access in such cases is also generally prevented along with some heavy-duty email filtering. You can only run the software they provide, you can't install anything of your own, you can't access the internet, you're restricted to the in-house email system, etc. I've not encountered keylogging or other such "spyware" in such environments because the functionality is so restricted, that such logs would be a waste of time.
If he's NOT on a Government project, and his employer is doing keylogging, or something similar, they're also likely to have a company policy in place such that if he's discovered searching for such stuff, that can be used as grounds for termination. After all, the reality is that companies can fire you for anything! You're the one that has to hire a lawyer, spend the money, and take THEM to court to get your job back -- and unless you have 30K$ to spend, and five years to waste, they're not going to worry about you doing that.Well said, and, 100% correct on ALL points. Steve
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Mother Board
Intel E6850 Processor, oc'd to 3.4ghz
4gb DDR2 800mhz G.skill Dual channel ram
MSI GeForce GX8600GT Twin Turbo Video
Aspire Xdiscover case with lots of fans
Antec 650 Watt PSU, 250 gb SATA HD, 2 Samsung DVD writers
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