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Security issues with Hotbar/Gator

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by melissa

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Alot of my user's have installed a free software called Hotbar or Gator including myself. I started to notice that I was getting alot of pop up ads all of a sudden and alot of junk email. I have now uninstalled hotbar and downloaded a free ad aware program that delete's all the ad junk on your computer. Now my computer has no pop up's and no junk email as of yet. Are there any risk's if other user's want to keep hotbar on there systems? As far as security, what type of information can people get from your computer? Does this lead to back doors into your system? Very concerned!

Thanks!

10 replies

by timwalsh

Here's the information Gator claims it collects:

http://tinyurl.com/hpqh

and here is how Gator uses that information:

http://tinyurl.com/hpqr

I view Hotbar as being more dangerous. It collects much of the same information, but ties it to an IP address:

http://www.hotbar.com -- click on the links to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Why is it more "dangerous?" If you are using public IP addresses, the IP address can be traced back to the registered "owner" of that IP address. You are now tying surfing habits and Internet usage to a particular business, or possibly a particular individual.

by oz_media

I have a policy that NOBODY is allowed to install software without written consent from myself or the sales manager (ex IT dude).
If I log into a users PC and see Hotbar, I remove it without notice. If I see Gator I will remove it and ruin ADAWAREto clean, it is really messy at tying up resources. As for Webshots or Incredimail, that just gets me riled. These programs don't neccessarily HARM your computer and in most cases are quite safe as far as backdoors etc. for hackers to get in but they are extremely obtrusive and use valuable system resources. If a sales rep spend 3 hours preparing a quotation, he freaks on me when his computer crashes. Of course, he doesn't save his work periodically and has a system tray full of free apps and spyware. It costs the company tmoney to call me in (even remotely) and it take up my time which could be better spent on other problems.

All in all, YES it is a problem, it costs the company monet and it screws up the computers ability to use resourcs efficiently, causing lock-ups, errors and system crashes.

NASTY STUFF!!!! YUCKY!!

by melissa

About the policy that nobody is allowed to install software without wriiten consent, how do you monitor this? Is it just said that you cant do it or is it blocked out?
Thanks for your help!

by oz_media

For restricting user installs I do both. I have a rule setup onmy client's Netware server so people can't download exe's without Administrator rights or persmission. There is one guy in their office with rights and if he's not around, users can email me with a request.

I have the ability to log into each PC in their office individually for troubleshooting problems etc. so if I see anything that is not supposed to be there I remove it and ,if I'm feeling nice, leave them a message.

by oz_media

NOTE: as I've mentioned before, download and run ADAWARE I bet you'll find a LOT more spyware in these systems than you had expected.
I had one customer say his PC was clean and had no problems, ADAWARE showed that there were over 96 background applications and spyware programs running in his system and removed them.

Get Adaware from http://www.lavasoft.nu

The best Anti Virus scanner I've used (other than on a server) is AVG Antivirus FREE edition. It is quicker than Norton or MacAffee, uses a lot less resources and doesn't cause hangs and errors like the Norton and MacAffee systems do. Download a copy at http://www.grisoft.com

Good luck!

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