I read another article today about the fact that spyware has surpassed viruses in terms of computer disruption and it will only continue to get worse. The article went on to say that if you haven't looked at an enterprise anti-spyware solution you'd better get started. Been there...done that.
Back in October I got tired of combating spyware and started researching enterprise solutions. Webroot's SpySweeper Enterprise Edition had won several awards so I downloaded the 30 day trial...tested it a few days on my workstation...then pushed it out to all our computers (80 units at that time) via a simple group policy. After a day or 2 our support calls drop to nil. After the trial was up I was sold on the product and got a great end-of-year discount by doing a little negotiating with the vendor. Since October we haven't had a single spyware related issue and since all the updates are automated by the SpySweeper admin console, the only time I even think about spyware is when I read about it in an article...or someone wants to know why their home PC is jacked up.
When I think about all the IT changes we made in 2004...and we made a ton...I think SpySweeper may have had the largest impact. The ROI from this simple solution has been HUGE ... allowing us to focus on important stuff rather than fighting spyware. If you're managing a network, small or large, I'd strongly recommend you check out SpySweeper...it rocks!
I wrote a more detailed version of this post a while back in this techrepublic.com forum.
Of course for the home user I still use/recommend these free tools ... AdAware, Spybot, MS Anti-spyware ... and the best step-by-step "how to remove spyware" article I've found is here at majorgeeks.com.
Jason's absolutely correct; SpySweeper works exactly as advertised. As one of his laptop users, I haven't experienced a single spyware issue since he deployed it. One caveat though - it is a real CPU pig while running. It may just be that I'm a VPN user, but I could sure use that 2 hours every morning it takes Spyware to do it's thing. It's a great solution for enterprise desktops that get left on all the time, I'm a little wary of using it on a laptop that could frequently be turned off during the scheduled run time.
Posted by: John DeBoer | March 05, 2005 at 05:09 PM
John,
I just noticed a new client and server application update was just installed and should end up pushed to your laptop. It's got a new "mobile client" feature which I turned on. I haven't read yet exactly what it does, but I'm betting it addresses your concerns.
Jason
Posted by: Jason Powell | March 11, 2005 at 11:33 PM
To all sys admins, network gurus and youth pastors that are responsible for your church's PCs...You absolutely MUST install the mobile client feature Jason pushed to my laptop. I've been watching it for better than a week now, and it has cut the runtime to less than half of what it was.
Posted by: John DeBoer | March 20, 2005 at 12:24 PM