Sighhhh,
Just what we all need to read first thing Monday morning---another hoax.
Might we request that posters of security alerts do at least a cursory
check on e.g. deja.com
before posting?
Stephen Baig
Readers interested enough in this one might turn to http://kumite.com/myths/
and read the entirety of
MYTH: Aureate DLLs Trojan
Various 'alerts' claim Aureate Media, Inc. gathers personal data on
Internet users via covert software. Hysteria got in the
way of the facts in this case...
The facts
1.The myth about Aureate began when someone publicized a private
email from Net-Defender president Dale Haag without his knowledge or
permission. "[My] comments have been misconstrued and taken out of
context," Haag stressed during an interview. "They were not for public
release, nor were they complete. These were initial comments &
observations based off a cursory inspection after installing a product
[with
Aureate's DLLs in it], running the product, de-installing it, making sure
everything was removed correctly, and then inspecting the PC to verify
that any other components added to the system were properly
de-installed as well."
2.Richard M. Smith, the media's reigning security expert on covert data
collection, concurred with Haag about the
"misconstrued" email. "You need to use a packet sniffer to know what's
really going on," Smith explained. "It tells you
what data is going out the wire, and it tells you when. Data that goes
out for a voluntary survey is quite a bit different
from data that goes out on the sly."
3.Smith performed his own cursory study of Aureate's product. He decided
not to pursue a more detailed analysis
based mostly on his findings (and based partly on statements from the
company). "The probability here is pretty low
that there's any monkey business going on," Smith concluded. "I don't
see any 'extra' information going out... [Aureate
makes] it clear you can volunteer information if you want; and it's
opt-in, which I think is the right approach. In terms of
Internet marketing companies, their data privacy policies are well
above average."
4.Haag did not try to stage a media event at Aureate's expense. Nor did
he try to alert the media about his overall
concerns regarding data privacy. "I did not initiate contact with any
reporters," Haag asserted during an interview.
("Including yourself," he added.)
Interview with Dale Haag (Net-Defender president) folows.
At 11:03 PM 26-02-00 +0700, you wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>NOTE: Read this *mail* ONLY if you are interested in protecting your
>PC from someone spying. A serial allegation has been made against the
>Aureate Medial Library Files in doing so and some common programs that
>we use has been found using these library files. This mail is 616
>lines long, so it's upto you. Mac and Unix users are Safe.
>--------------slash-----------------------------
>
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