In this lesson,
we're going to discuss spyware and bloatware.
In our modern enterprise networks,
software plays a pivotal role in our daily operations,
but as software continues to evolve,
some threat actors and even legitimate organizations
have taken the opportunity
to install various types of unwanted
and potentially harmful software applications
on our devices.
First, let's take a look at spyware.
Spyware, as the name suggests,
is the type of malicious software that's designed to gather
and send information about a user
or organization without their knowledge.
This information can range from the user's browsing habits
and software utilization patterns
to more sensitive data, like passwords, credit card numbers
and other relevant personal details too.
Spyware can get installed on a system
in several different ways,
including being bundled with other software,
being installed through a malicious website
or be installed when a user clicks
on a deceptive pop-up advertisement.
Once installed,
the spyware will typically operate in the background
without the user's knowledge or consent.
Spyware can cause issues because it invades your privacy,
but it can also have other negative effects,
such as significantly slowing down
your system's performance.
It is continually using your system's resources
to monitor and transmit data back to the attacker
who's gathering information about you.
To help protect yourself against spyware,
you should only use reputable antivirus
and anti spyware tools that are regularly updated
to be able to detect and remove any potential threats.
Also, whenever you're downloading software,
you should only download it from trusted sources
and you should read through
the end user licensing agreement, known as the EULA,
to see if the company is collecting any of your personal
or private data without your knowledge.
Finally, you should make sure that your operating system
and other software applications are up to date
and patched with the latest security updates
to ensure that spyware cannot exploit
any known vulnerabilities that exist in your system.
Second, we have bloatware.
Now, bloatware is quite different from spyware,
but it can be just as frustrating
when it gets installed on your system.
Now, bloatware refers to any software
that comes pre-installed on your new computer or smartphone
that you, as the user, did not specifically request,
want or need.
Bloatware isn't really dangerous,
but it does take up precious resources on your devices,
including storage space
and using up your limited system RAM,
or Random Access Memory.
Typically, you're going to find that manufacturers
or vendors of a device will add this kind of bloatware
as part of their promotional partnership deals.
For example, if you bought a new Windows laptop
and it came with a 30 day free trial of Microsoft Office 365
and 90 day free trial of Norton Antivirus,
these are both considered to be bloatware
because you didn't ask for them to be installed,
and instead,
these companies paid the manufacturer your laptop
to pre-install these applications on that laptop,
so that you will hopefully purchase their paid version
of these applications.
And so this becomes a marketing technique
for these companies.
Other examples of bloatware
are things like unnecessary toolbars
or applications that can promote certain services
that may exist inside of your computer.
Now, in general, bloatware is not going to be malicious,
but as I said, it does waste your storage space,
slows down the performance of your devices
and introduces new security vulnerabilities
into your systems,
because all that extra code could have bugs in it,
and those bugs could be exploited by an attacker.
Remember, anytime you have a piece of software installed,
that is going to be one more potential threat vector
for the attacker to exploit
if you don't properly update that application.
Personally, I find the best practice
is to remove any extra software or applications
that you're not using on a daily basis
to help minimize the attack surface
of your devices and systems.
Now, to remove bloatware, you can either manually remove it,
or you can use bloatware removal tools,
or you can perform a clean operating system installation.
First, we have a manual removal process.
For Windows-based devices,
you can go to the programs
and feature section in the Control Panel
and uninstall any unwanted software you have.
If you're using a smartphone or tablet,
you can navigate to the app section in the settings
and uninstall or disable any unnecessary applications
from your device.
Second, we can use bloatware removal tools
to uninstall the unwanted applications.
There are several third party tools
available in the marketplace that can help identify
and remove bloatware more comprehensively
than you might be able to do on your own,
so they are something to think about or to consider.
Third, and my personal preference,
is to perform a clean operating system installation
whenever you buy a new device.
Instead of using the operating system
and the bloatware that came pre-installed on your device,
you can instead perform
what is known as a clean operating system installation,
which ensures you are only going to be starting out
with a software you need on your new system.
So remember, spyware and bloatware represents software
that isn't necessarily always malicious,
but it is considered to be unwanted.
Spyware is the type of malicious software designed to gather
and send information about a user
or organization without their knowledge or consent.
Bloatware, on the other hand,
refers to software that comes pre-installed on a new device,
computer, or smartphone, which the user did not request
and often doesn't need or doesn't want.
While spyware and bloatware do serve different purposes
and provide different threat levels against our systems,
it is important to be aware of the existence of both spyware
and bloatware in order to understand how to manage
or eliminate these risks to create a safer,
more efficient and more pleasant experience
for our end users when using our systems and devices.