Small Banks Tackle Spyware

Security vendors are combining several technologies to make it easier for businesses to clean spyware from their systems. Shavlik Technologies LLC today is shipping software that combines patch management, reporting, and automated anti-spyware technology that's designed to reduce the amount of time and money finding and removing spyware.

Shavlik NetChk Protect lets IT administrators work from a single Shavlik console to launch multiple scans of a network. The console and scans can confirm which software and security patches are in place, find and identify spyware that has infested a system, and let an administrator take action to remove the spyware.

The addition of anti-spyware capabilities has made life easier for Nat Strickland, chief security nerd at MegaNerds LLC, which provided outsourced IT services to community banks. "Before I'd have to get a user out of her chair, try to remediate the spyware problem, scan the system, and take out the spyware," he says. "Once in a while, it took 10 minutes, but most of the time it was a long, drawn out process." Frequently, Strickland says, it could take as long as five hours to fix and restore a computer.

MegaNerds tested the NetChk product. "It gives us centralized reporting of what's missing on each system, the patches on board, and the spyware," says Strickland. "From the console, I right-click on the spyware and remove it from the system. No agent is installed, and the printing of the report only takes an hour for the whole network of users."