How Spyware Took The Next-Gen Threat Crown (On The Internet's No #1 Threat Today MUST READ!!!)

ESecurityPlanet.com ^ | 12/20/04 | Sonny Discini

[1L]

Avast is likely the best AV program on the market, and since its free for personal use, it isn't even on the "market!"

Norton is just and AVG is OK, but Avast is MUCH better. I'm always ready to update spyware.

Also, there's a program called CleanCache that cleans out IE files like nothing else. Even if you now run Firefox or another browser, chances are your termporary internet file folder is clogged and CC will clean it out. Its also free.

[Paul_Denton]

Yep and thanks for telling me about the cache cleaner, I usually clean it out manually each week. Even the most advanced versions of Cool Web Search never got past Avast.

[1L]

>>Then again, you could get a Macintosh, and forego worrying about...
- Spyware - there _isn't_ any
- Adware - none at all!
- Viruses - no known virus exists for OS X, not a single one
- Trojans - nothing out there
There's no reason to even use anti-virus software on a Macintosh anymore.<<

This link:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/0,2000061744,39164062,00.htm

says differently.

[Musket]

That's a good question, so I had to check it out and yes, it appears that it does install for all user accounts on the machine.

Merry Christmas and drive safely!

[goldstategop]

Which why anti-spyware software is NOT enough to prevent an infection. You must lock down Internet Explorer with IE Spyad and get a HOSTS file that prevents Windows from ever connecting to high-risk sites on the web and make it read only so scumware can't change it.

[Musket]

O.K. I'll take your challenge.

On second thought maybe I won't. I'm so freaked out right now about finding a keylogger on my machine, it may have been there over a year and I was operating under the false assumption that I had everything locked down tight. I changed my IE prefs as per your instruction but I don't know how much I'll actually use it.

Let this be a lesson to other Freepers -- running Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Personal Firewall, a Linksys router w/NAT, Ad-aware and Spybot Search and Destroy was NOT enough. GIANT AntiSpyware finally caught it, although Spy Sweeper may have. I thought about running Spy Sweeper months ago but I just figured that if none of that other stuff found anything, then there must not be anything.

WRONG.

Merry Anti-Spyware Christmas Everyone!

[Political Junkie Too]

Which why anti-spyware software is NOT enough to prevent an infection.

Here's what I run:

ZoneAlarm Pro
McAfee Internet Security Suite (except Firewall)
AdSubtract Pro (I like it's pop-up control better)
AdAware Pro with AdWatch
Backup MyPC (for nightly incremental backups)

I still got infected by CoolWebSearch.

Thing that bugs me about all of this is that it seems like there is a cottage industry of spyware/adware blockers thriving on this problem, instead of legislation to make the unauthorized theft of the use of my computer a crime.

-PJ

[Pablo64]

Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you, too!

[GeorgiaBushie]

Check to make sure your Link sys router has up-to-date security patches. If you have a key logger that has gotten into your system, it is worth it.

I had a problem with a key logger and could not get rid of the problem until applying the patches to the router.