Downloading

[Wenkler]

Some employees have dled messenger programs as well as messenger plus programs, infecting their stations with spyware. Is my best bet simply to uninstall their messenger programs completly? How can I ban downloads in the future?

 

[NoobX]

What os are you using first off? Most likely you can keep those messenger programs opened without being infected! I would recommend to secure your activex controls, and to ban downloads i would recommend using mmc and setting user rights there is also free software on the net to ban downloads and even block port80 fuctions, you can even get software to ban p2p prgrams!

 

[MichealC4]

Wenkler: I'm constantly fighting people launching MSNM on our computers at work. (Stupid Microsoft integrating it with XP >_<). However, we've stopped Yahoo and so on with content filtering. Not sure what your budget is, but Websense is quite popular for content filtering. As for blocking spyware, programs such as spybot have a Teatimer to protect the system. Lastly, to block p2p, we have an Intrusion Prevention System in place so that if a student brings in a laptop with Kazaa or something already installed, they won't be able to connect out. There are other systems, like ICARUS from University of Florida that are just for blocking p2p. ICARUS isn't out yet, but from what I've read and heard, it is extremely effective.

I hope in that jumble you can decipher something that will help.

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"Security is like an onion" - Unknown

 

[Folkm]

The guys above have given you good ways to stop it from launching, as for the Messenger Plus program... it comes in two forms with and without sponsor. If they downloaded with spponsor that's where the spyware is coming from scan your computer with a program such as Adware Safe or spybot as mentioned.
Hope that helps,