Chad Perrin wrote:
I received an email tonight from the SANS Institute,
one of the most
widely known authorities on matters pertaining to network security and
provider of some of the best information on the subject of computer
security threats available online. The email is an invitation to a
conference they'll be hosting. Since it's in Colorado and costs great
scads of money between the attendance fee and the expenses, I won't be
going.
I thought an excerpt from the email might interest this list, though.
"According to Wikipedia, "spyware consists of computer software that
gathers and reports information about a computer user without the
user's knowledge or consent." This can encompass a wide range of
different types of malware that perform a variety of actions on
computer systems. Some spyware delivers advertising, while other
spyware gathers user information without his/her knowledge. Spyware
can also install modem dialing software and redirect users to
malicious Web sites."
That's the lead-in to the purpose of the conference. It seems like
good news to see yet another recognized authority using Wikipedia to
provide definitions of the terms for the foci of its trade.
While I have no real complaint about the contents of the quote, someone
familiar with the subject area could go to the article to tighten up the
prose style. The phrase about gathering user information is repetitious.
Ec