Spyware Blocker

[Longman, Bill]

> I have been receiving notifications of SPYWARE!!!!! on my 
> Winbox (yes, I 
> have one of *those*, too) and downloaded a bit of search-and-destroy 
> software to rid my machine of the dreaded stuff. Most of it 
> appeared to 
> be Java-related, which started me thinking that maybe my Linux box 
> wasn't quite so immune to invasion as I thought.

Your Linux box is still safe, Olaf.

Java applets have to specifically ask you for permission to get at local
resources. They can't jump out of their virtual machine all by themselves.
Java applets are the ones that you put into web pages.

Java applications, on the other hand, are like regular applications. They
are run on your local machine and use the same Java VM but they are given
access to local resources. You have to download and install these
applications, just like any other.
 
> Any comments on spyware safety? Any suggestions on sources for Linux, 
> especially YDL?

Just be really careful about what plug-ins you install in your browser. That
is the single biggest hole for spyware.