You’ve heard the phrase “know thy enemy.” Well, here are your most common spyware enemies (source:FaceTime Security Labs). Don’t be fooled – spyware is not a game. It costs individuals and corporations millions of dollars each year. Spyware can be used to watch your surfing habits, steal credit card information, or just be a nuisance. In any case, it’s a royal pain. Know they enemy.
1. Gator – Gator is installed by users as a password vault. That means that passwords can be recalled for you automatically when visiting sites. The trade-off for this service is that you have to endure pop-ups when visiting certain sites. Claria, the maker of Gator,has cleaned up its act a little by labeling the pop-up ads, but they’re still annoying.
2. CoolWebSearch – This has got to be one of the most notorious browser hijackers out there. This is the name given to a program with many different variants that redirect users to coolwebsearch.com or datanotary.com. Uninstallation can be extremely complex. Users shouldn’t try to manually remove this software.
3. 180SearchAssistant – This software either serves ads in pop-ups or pops up website windows based on your keyword searches. This software usually comes bundled with other “freebie” type software installs like emoticons or wallpaper. Newer versions of the software have an add/remove program uninstall item.
4. Huntbar – Now here’s an annoying piece of software. Huntbar installs a toolbar onto internet explorer and windows explorer windows. It changes your home page and search page settings to point to their servers. If you use another search engine, Huntbar will redirect you to theirs. Great stuff. Oh, and it puts a 15% drain on memory resources.
5. Cydoor – This software usually comes with P2P software, ie. peer to peer. Again, it barrages you with a series of pop up advertisements. It also tracks usage information.
6. ISTbar – Yet another nice, unwanted piece of software. ISTbar does “drive-by” install via ActiveX and javascript. Basically, that means that you visit a site and it tries to install itself to your computer. Nice, huh. The Activex control installs a toolbar that pushes information to my-internet.info and blazefind.com.
7. WhenU-DesktopBar – Displays advertising content. Monitors internet traffic, collects search profiles, and can execute code from a remote server using its update feature only. Relevant searches may cause it to display a special offer, coupon, or other advertising content. The adware may also display advertisements.
8. New.Net – New.Net is a company that sells domain names for “nonstandard” top-level domains. It should be removed pronto.
9. IEPlugin – As the name implies, it installs a toolbar in Internet Explorer. It tracks web site usage, form items (like names, addresses, etc. – ie. yikes!), and local filenames that are browsed. It’s invasive – remove it.
10. BargainBuddy – Bargain Buddy used to be everywhere. It is distributed by BullzEye Network. And it sets up a Browser Helper Object (BHO) and monitors your computer usage. It then, you guessed it, pushes advertisements your way based on that usage.
About the Author:
Paul has 15 years experience as a technical specialist. During that time, Paul has encountered thousands of unique technical challenges. These articles are garnered from that experience. Find more articles at Spyware Lineup. http://www.spywarelineup.com
Written by mellow on March 25th, 2007 with no comments.
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Spyware is now a big threat to internet users. And getting enough spyware knowledge is the best defense. The first thing you need to do is to educate yourself how a spyware gets into your computer.
You also need to learn how and where to check for it. Then, be familiar with the basic spyware removal process by inspecting your tasklist or using spyware removal programs.
Spywares are often bundled on freewares (meaning softwares that can be downloaded for free). So, be careful when downloading free programs. You may want to read the complete user agreement to avoid installing unwanted programs. Another way that a spyware may get into your system is when you are accessing sites due to some security holes on a browser. It is recommended that you evaluate sites that you visit to avoid getting a spyware.
There are several ways to know if your computer is infected with the spyware. Here are the symptoms or signs :
Your computer runs slow or freezes up. Spywares tend to eat a lot of memory resources causing your computer to be sluggish and locking up.
You continually get pop up which may be uncontrollable. There are cases that pop ups will appear even if you are not accessing websites. There are some that may automatically appear upon Windows start up.
You have a hijacked default homepage. This means that whenever you launch your browser, an unknown default homepage will load which is not the one you have set on your Browser options or preferences. Then when you search for sites, it goes to another site than the one you are searching.
Bookmarks will list unknown adult-oriented or porn sites and casino or gamblings sites.
Spyware can be anywhere in your computer. However, there are several ways to check if your computer has one. And it is advisable that you remove it immediately once you found it.
Below are some basic tips on how to check and remove a spyware:
Check your tasklist.
Your tasklist will show you the programs currently running in your computer (to check your tasklist, press CTRL+ALT+DEL). If you are familiar with the files on your list, then you can easily determine which file is unwanted from the list. Then, it can be a spyware file.
Verify your start up list.
Since some spywares start automatically, then it is advisable to verify if your start up list contains a program, which you are not familiar with. You can do this by running msconfig (in the Windows Run Command, type ‘msconfig’).
Look for unfamiliar programs on your Program list.
You can do this by checking your Programs Menu or Add/Remove Programs under Control Panel. Select the programs or softwares which are not familiar to you and uninstall them.
Install one or two Anti Spyware programs.
There are antispyware programs that you can download and will help you remove a spyware from your computer. However, a good spyware removal tool is one that will also prevent a spyware from coming into your computer system. Do your research on the available antispyware programs and make a comparison.
Manually remove a spyware.
Remember that there are spyware, which cannot be removed by a spyware removal software but needs to be deleted manually. Look for spyware removal help sites that will provides steps in removing a specific spyware.
Please remember that the tips mentioned above should only be followed if you have enough computer knowledge (which means that you are a computer expert).
Otherwise, contact a computer technician or your computer vendor to further assist you in troubleshooting your computer problems.
About the Author
Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in Internet Safety. For more information regarding Spyware Removal please drop by at http://www.bye-bye-spam.com/
Written by mellow on March 25th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Spyware.
