Your computer may not be as secure as you think, thanks to 'spyware'

Stars and Stripes ^ | October 29, 2002 | Rick Chernitzer

[TechJunkYard]

Aren't you glad you run Linux?

[rdb3]

But of course! Hey, this new TTF font rendering engine showing pretty well to you?

[PAR35]

Your list is a good start, but you should consider adding:

Popup Stopper

Mozilla for the cookie control, additional pop-up blocking, and the Tabbed windows. (Hit control T, do a Google search in the new tab, and keep your place in FR in the old tab.)

[altair]

What I wonder is, why isn't this junk made ILLEGAL?

You gave your permission to have that stuff loaded onto your computer. Stop doing it if you don't like it.

[TechJunkYard]

Just the same old font you've been using... ;-)

[jbstrick]

I do most of my work using BSD! No damn viri, no popups!

[TechJunkYard]

And NO giving the root password to the users; so they CAN'T install their own software!

[jenny65]

Those motherf*ckers (I'm not going to be as careful about my expletive deletion) at Gator ought to be tarred, feathered, then set on fire, while their families watch. Seriously, the stuff they do should be illegal.

There's a free message forum server called Network 54 that has a forum I used to frequent. For the last few months, they've gotten downright NASTY with their pop-up ads. Gator is one of them. About every other time you load a page, you get a pop-up box claiming that "Internet Explorer needs to download and install the following plugin to properly view this page". It's exactly the same plugin box you get when you need to download Flash Player or whatever. Except in this case, it's Gator. If you press the "Yes" button (which many people probably do), it'll install its evil spyware. Because there is absolutely no reason that Gator needs to be installed in order to view the page, I'd say that's misleading if not outright lying to the user.

They should be put permanently out of business. If this gets removed because of my first sentence, so be it. I cannot possibly express my hatred for these bastards.

[goodnesswins]

I have a HARDWIRED firewall and router....do I really need Adware? (I read in the reviews one person said it screws up win98....which I have)

[rdb3]

PanicWare, dear. That, and AdAware then you'll be fine.

[jenny65]

I have a HARDWIRED firewall and router....do I really need Adware? (I read in the reviews one person said it screws up win98....which I have)

I can't answer your question about firewalls, but I use Ad-Aware on my Win98SE system, and I've never had a problem with it. The only warning I've heard about it is that it can possibly remove things that should be there (associated with legitimate programs), but nothing having to do with the OS. I rarely have a need to run it, as I'm so careful about what I download and run. But it has caught a couple of minor things in the past.

[FlyVet]

You gave your permission to have that stuff loaded onto your computer. Stop doing it if you don't like it.

If you mean my security settings, you are right, in a round-about way. But there are certain websites that I can't view conveniently without having cookies and the need to reload the info over and over. Can you see the difference between cookies and spyware? I can. The arrogance of certain keyboard warriors sometimes amazes me. I assume you allow NO cookies onto your machine. Feel free to enlighten me.

[jenny65]

Yes, I run Ad-Aware. I also run ZoneAlarm Pro which, along with firewall protection, stops most pop-ups. It works on the forum I mentioned. But my work PC doesn't have any of that, so I have to put up with it there. I just stopped visiting it.

[rdb3]

Your IT policy at work won't allow you to install it? If it doesn't, be nice to your sysadmins. Outside of a security guard, these are the best people to have on your side.

[SamAdams76]

I have been using AdAware for a month now. It's a great program (and free).

[RebelTex]

Buy it & also get Ad Aware - it blocks new spyware before it's installed - I've got it & it's great. (Only $15) I like buying inexpensive great programs & helping good programmers stay around.

Freebies are nice, but if I use it & find that it does what it says & does it well, then I buy the product - they've earned my support.

"Ad-aware plus - Includes Ad-watch and the Ad-aware plus application with additional features. Free lifetime updates and customer support inclusive. The registration fee for a single license is $15."

Get it here, if you want it.

To order Ad Aware & Ad Watch

FReegards,
RebelTex

[martin_fierro]

Hmmm, not sure about what programs are running in XP's background, but run AdAware and have it do a "deep registry scan."

If it identifies files with the following names:
Cydoor
Alexa
Gator
flag 'em for deletion.

Just know that if you remove some programs' Spyware, you also lose functionality of that program.

[Senator Pardek]

Thanks. Here's some - lsas.exe/csrss.exe/smss.exe

[martin_fierro]

As far as I know, AdAware is pretty innocuous to Windows 98.

Have AdAware do a Deep Registry Scan and mark the folowing files for deletion:
Cydoor
Gator
Alexa

Of course, once you remove Gator's spyware, Gator will no longer run -- but you may not care. :)

[Senator Pardek]

I looked these files up and I don't like them.