62 Chapter 2 · Stalkers on Your Desktop Here is a short list of other areas where "stealth technology" is or might be used legitimately Assessing the threat from insiders and other monitoring of employees Encryption and concealment of data on multi-user systems Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management Intrusion tracking Protection of security software, including detection technology, backup, and system recovery software, from spoofing and reverse engineering Legitimate functions aside, a rootkit may have a number of secondary objectives, including: Concealing the fact that malicious applications and processes are present, often by passing them off as legitimate files Concealing the presence of vulnerabilities and exploits Harvesting information about the system and system user Attacking other systems, using the compromised system as an intermediary resource Concealing the storing of other malicious applications and the use of the system