1. Security Test
2. Virus Scan
3. AVG AntiVirus
4. Zone Alarm
5. Search& Destroy
6. Ad-Aware
Posted on 10/25/2004 10:19:55 AM PDT by LouAvul
Internet users at home are not nearly as safe online as they believe, according to a nationwide inspection by researchers. They found most consumers have no firewall protection, outdated antivirus software and dozens of spyware programs secretly running on their computers.
One beleaguered home user in the government-backed study had more than 1,000 spyware programs running on his sluggish computer when researchers examined it.
Bill Mines, a personal trainer in South Riding, Va., did not fare much better. His family's 3-year-old Dell computer was found infected with viruses and more than 600 pieces of spyware surreptitiously monitoring his online activities.
"I was blown away," Mines said. "I had a lot of viruses and other things I didn't know about. I had no idea things like this could happen."
The Internet always has had its share of risky neighborhoods and dark alleys. But with increasingly sophisticated threats from hackers, viruses, spam e-mails and spyware, trouble is finding computer users no matter how cautiously they roam online.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Articles like this make me think my son is correct: People need to get a license to operate a computer just like people need to get a license to operate a car.
I am into this kind of thing and in my opinion, the bad guys are definately winning.
Good spyware detectors?
Nope! Adware, Spyware, Spoofs and Phishing should be crimes. Making the innocent to respond to the immoral is counter to the public interest. Punish the guilty, not the innocent.
We have Norton anti virus detection on our computer. It detects attempted intrusions. I have had at least one attempt per week detected by the software program. It works well. I would be very careful about downloading any software program from the internet
Something has found its way into my computer, and has disabled all my spyware removal options. Pretty cute, eh? I'm going to take the darn thing back where I bought it and have the geeks clean it out.
People need to stop driving their Microsoft go-karts on the Internet and use an OS that takes security into account.
Whichever OS is on the most machines will be the target of hackers.
Boot up in safe mode and run your spyware checkers. If necessary, download the latest versions of spybot and adaware, get the latest updates, then run them in safe mode.
In fact, it has been reported that terrorists and criminals have been using unsecured wireless networks to cloak their online activity and to avoid being spotted in an internet cafe (which was revealed to be a common method they used for planning 9/11). But, with many hotels, cafes, and coffee shops installing wireless networks but not securing them, this has become an even more ripe method for terrorists and criminals to use the internet without some of the tracable method (i.e., an account).
(FULL DISCLOSURE: I own and operate a business that offers secured wireless solutions to residential and commercial properties. See my profile page for a link to my company).
MS has slipped to #3 in usage!
Mac is now #1!
Lots of idiots drive cars too.
I work on PC's for a living and we recenly had an XP PC with over 1100 infected files (Viruses and worms) and 900+ pieces of spyware and I was able to bring it back without a reinstall -- I used Mcaffee "Stinger" and "Ad Aware"
Locally one of our phone companies runs Mcaffee and they have a program called mail guard that scanns all incoming email for spam and viruses with my customers I then put the m on Norton so that their stuff gets scanned again with a second product.
With these changes my customers have had very little virus problems and are able to keep the spyware under control.
Here we go again!
In a "conservative", limited-government website no less. The first time a problem pops up, who do they turn to? More big government.
Don't you understand if you call on the government to do everything for you, they'll soon be running EVERYTHING? How is a license going to solve this problem? Tell me? All you'll do is empower another government agency. Would you like them controlling the internet by declaring who can and who can't get access and under what conditions?
No thanks!
Jeez... If all else fails... get off the web! Don't impose more government on us.
There's also this pesky 1st Amendment which SHOULD prevent this from happening (but who cares about that... huh? It's O.K. if it's for a conservative cause.)
Not at my house.
Educate yourself before you repeat oft debunked theories.
Your "theory" is Myth No. 1.
I just saw a car wash the other day that is offering free wireless internet while you wait on getting your car washed.
Spyware, bots, adware, etc.. its like dust. Annoying but can be gotten rid of. The problems is those who do not educate themselves enough about how to correct the problems. The worst problems are the trojans that one has to manually remove.
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
AVG Antivirus
Swatit
are the programs that most should use if they are not buying a net suite like Nortons or McAfee.
For the really tough problems a copy of Hackthis and messageboard help will always work.
We recently got a new computer at work and before I could even download Norton (the "crack team" in our IT Dept. sent it without a modem or protection), I ended up with the Sasser worm, and the only site I had visited was Microsoft to download SP2. We had severe problems with SP1 security conflicts with Norton, have not yet been able to get that resolved due to the worm, need to go out on my old computer and download the fix today.
That may well be. But *nix users don't run as root for routine tasks, while M$ users typically run with admin privileges.
Add Search and Destroy to that list. I ran adaware on an xp home ed. and found nothing. Ran S&D and it came back with 30 spybots - most common DSO exploit.
CWS Shredder gets rid of CoolWebSearch. Moderately difficult to use, but it works.
Thank-you for this!
I guess I'm not as Libertarian as you are.
Hah! I was trying to remember where I saw that article.
There are several more - verry good ones - but this short list covers most situations.
Like a previous post stated . I always carry CWShredder on a CD with me when a friend calls for help - but my "Security" CD has 20-25 different programs depending on the VIrus/Trojan/ScumWare/etc that is on the computer.
The worst part is - I have to re-download ALL just before I leave to make sure I have the latest updates! The security software people update DAILY at the very least.
Believe whatever you want. You will anyway.
I have spybot and adaware. The problem is that this computer runs on Windows XP, and frankly I haven't had the time to really examine how it works. For instance, how in blazes does one run the system in safe mode? I really miss Win95 and 98. This computer isn't even a year old.
I know there is a way to reboot in safe mode, but I can't remember what keys to hold down. My bad?
((((Cool Web Search)))). That is the worst!!!!
Strictly true, from a purely logical standpoint. A single attack would be sufficient to support the statement. However, I suspect you meant to imply that the most widespread OS will be the most attacked. That extension of the argument totally neglects the vulnerability aspect of the analysis and cannot be universally made.
Could either of you please post a link for the CWS shredder? It's driving me nuts.
I only meant to imply that if an OS has such an overwhelmingly dominant presence, and it's rivals are so miniscule in comparison, hackers will tend to attack the OS that is pervasive, regardless of the the vulnerabilites of the respective OSs.
I suggest spending the 30 or so bucks for the full version. It picked up more than 30 other threats, and made a whale of a difference in performance on my machine.
Then again, I'm not the one that wants to believe unsubstanciated and debunked myths.
So, yeah, maybe that is the best you could do.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! I am bookmarking this thread!!!!!
No matter how many times you post this garbage, it's still wrong.
Fortunately, viruses and spyware are not an issue with be because I use Linux.
Dang.
You sure are emotional about this. It isn't like I said something about you mother.
Chill, dude.
Why is it important to run the programs in safe mode?
Emotional? It's not me that keeps posting information that he "feels" to be right, even after being made aware of the facts.
My posts are based on facts, your's on fantasy.
So who is being emotional?
Get help.
Learn to think instead of emoting.
I got DSO Exploit on my computer as well. Everytime I run my spyware program it finds DSO Exploit, says it removes it, but its still there. I can't seem to get rid of it, any suggestions. Currently running Windows 98 SE
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