ping!
I've probably spent 100 hours in the past year from the side effects and effort to defeat spyware. Get at least three adware detectors, scan often, at least once a week.
No mention of CWS (Cool Web Search) or Xupiter.
Actually I have heard of and encountered most of those. I've found ISTbar to be particularly obnoxious in the past.
Sorry, they do name the ten top pieces of Malware....
I'm on earthlink (love it BTW) but I'm not finding a reference for this.
I find if my daughter leaves on her AIM, her computer just gets loads of spyware stuff on it.
CA has a free spyware scan offer (using PestPatrol) at their website. You can use it to find out what (if anything) is currently on your system.I'm spending a big chunk of my time cleaning Trojans and HiJackers off my client's PCs. It's getting really bad especially for IE users. The stuff that replicates itself and hides in the registry is unbelievable. If you miss something, it'll just come right back.
JWinNC
Why can't there be a way to prevent any program from sending anything out?
Example. You are getting information from a site you have chosen. You are connected through your ISP. You know who those two are.
Why can't I limit uploads to just those two sites until I choose otherwise, and no others?
I assume there must be a good reason.
ping
Don't know what the top 10 are, but you catch 9 of them from Drudge.
Since I switched over to the Firefox browser, I get zero spyware programs when I surf, again according to Ad-aware.
the best advice I got for removal (I'm windows XP) is to disable system restore, run the anti- programs, reboot, run them again, then re-enable system restore.
In a Windows business environment, use an Active Directory domain and clamp down on all the users permissions. This creates some minor problems up front: inevitably there are applications that need to write to odd directories and the permissions will prohibit that. An admin will have to figure out what directory is being denied and give all the users of that app permissions to write to that folder.
A great many of the problems with Windows in the business environment are vendors writing software that hasn't been tested in a locked-up domain (which is totally bizarre and lazy on their part). ACT!....CaterEase....even Palm OS won't function correctly. Out of all the problems I've had Palm OS is the only app I've been unable to make work. That's OK, I just tell people to buy an ActiveSync compatible device or they can't use one....period....end of discussion.
As for Internet Explorer at home: simply download the IE 5 Power Tweaks from Microsoft and install them. Then go into your IE options and under Security disable or restrict all scripting, Java and ActiveX.
When you go to a site you trust -like your bank - that requires scripting etc, click on IE's Tools menu. Power Tweaks adds a "Add to Trusted Zone" option there: click it and refresh the page.
It's a little bit of a hassle until you have all your sites in the list but, it's kept me free from spyware for several years now and once the bulk of your trusted sites are listed, it's no problem at all.
Mozilla's a great alternative too although, some functions still won't work on it correctly....those will be fixed eventually as demand for it grows. I'd use it full-time now if the Kiosk mode worked correctly.
Imagine no spyware - none, zilch, nada.
Imagine no adware - nothing, zero, not a single one.
Imagine no trojans.
Imagine no viruses - nothing to protect against. Imagine not even _running_ any anti-virus software on your computer.
Imagine computing for 17 years, online for 17 years, and never having had a virus, not once. Ever.
Imagine being able to read _any_ email, without fear. To visit _any_ website you wish, without fear. Imagine be able to download _anything_ you wished, and not even have to check it for infection, or worry about some hidden application buried within it, just waiting to attack your computer.
Imagine turning on your computer with the confidence that you can leave it online a day, a week, a month, and return to find it in exactly the same state - unmolested - as you left it in.
Now, STOP imagining. That's been my personal computing experience (really!) for the last 17 years online.
Impossible, you say? Not if you're using a Mac.
Granted, someone _could_ possibly concoct a virus or some other malaware for OS X. However, if it _does_ happen, it's going to be a "man bites dog" story. It'll be headlines not because it's another virus, but because there has never been an attack on OS X. And it will be dealt with quickly.
I've got a friend at work who has used computers as long (longer?) than I have, but he came from the "PC side" of things. Two of his most memorable comments to me were "it took me ten years to learn DOS", and, "I hate computers!".
I've been fooling with personal computers since 1986 (the Mac since 1987) and I _enjoy_ computers! Why is that?
Cheers!
- John
Kazaa, Limeware and Morpheus are the worst offenders. Any FREE P2P sharing software is likely to come with tons of parasites hidden within the main package. But that's been an open secret with folks in the anti-spyware community for some years. I've kept scumware at arms' length by installing an IP firewall - Protowall and am going to look at Methlabs.org Peer Guardian 2.0 when it comes out. In addition, I have Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Internet Security firewall, Lavasoft Ad-Aware, Spybot's Search & Destroy, Javacool's Spyblaster, Ewido Security Suite anti-Trojan software and Pivx's Qwik-Fix anti-intrusion software to keep my computer parasite-free. And I've locked down Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers by banning malicious websites from being able to ever run on them. There is a Wild West on the Web and the better you protect yourself, the better you keep your computer and all the data on it for your own use, not that of strangers who don't necessarily have your best interests at heart.
Damn! How is Gamespy a threat? Many games, Medal of Honor, for example, use Gamespy Arcade by default to list servers to play multiplayer on.