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My computer is infested with this crap and I can't get rid of it. None of the free services can solve the problem, and I might even pay for such a service, except that all of them seem to be just folks willingly to take advantage of you and charge you more money, and possibly infect you more. Has anyone here seen this? How should I and anyone else deal with this?

Ads could be targeted at users based on local system data. Microsoft has filed a patent application for a new method of targeting advertising, using information on the contents of a local computer rather than interactions with the web. While most current advertising relies on watching an individual's web browsing habits, selecting the type of ads to show them based on the type of sites they visit, the system proposed by Microsoft would analyse a user's computer to gather data from documents, emails, downloaded media content and even system settings, which would then be used to create a more accurate...

Bill Day wants a second chance. Day is chief executive of WhenU.com Inc., a New York advertising company that used to smuggle its ''spyware" computer programs onto millions of Internet computers. Spyware programs have long infuriated Internet users by installing themselves without permission, generating a flood of unwanted pop-up advertisements, and even preventing users from uninstalling the offending programs. ''That's the legacy that we're trying to overcome," Day said. Battered by public outrage, WhenU hired Day in late 2004 to chart a new course for the company. Spyware is a $2 billion industry, according to Internet infrastructure and security company...

People tell me I bash Microsoft too much; that Microsoft's products really are great. OK, so I won't bash Microsoft this time around. I'll let Microsoft's own friends do it.

In May 2005, a trojan called PGPcoder was discovered in the wild by Websense Security Labs. The trojan's purpose was to encrypt a user's files, then demand a ransom for their decryption. Although this scheme seemed novel, it is actually predated by over 15 years, by a similar scam in 1989. LURHQ's Threat Intelligence Group has now discovered a third such scheme involving ransomware which we are calling Cryzip. Unlike PGPcoder, which used a custom encryption scheme (which was subsequently reverse-engineered by LURHQ), Cryzip uses a commercial zip library in order to store files inside a password-protected zip. Although the...

SAN FRANCISCO – A California man was indicted Friday on federal charges of creating a robot-like network of hijacked computers that helped him and two others bring in $100,000 for installing unwanted ad software. The indictment from a federal grand jury in Seattle also accuses Christopher Maxwell, 20, and two unidentified conspirators of crippling Seattle's Northwest Hospital with a ”botnet” attack in January 2005. Authorities say the hospital attack caused $150,000 in damages, shut down the intensive care unit and disabled doctors' pagers. “Some people consider botnets a mere annoyance or inconvenience for consumers but they are highly destructive,” U.S....

A company that develops antispyware software believes it has found a massive identity theft ring that appears to be using the evil and persistent CoolWebSearch spyware program. Anyone who's been unfortunate enough to be infected with CoolWebSearch knows that a bear it is to remove. If Sunbelt Software is correct, while it clings to your hard drive it's sending private information to evildoers: In some recent research into a spyware exploit, our research team has discovered a massive identity theft ring. We also found the keylogger transcript files that are being uploaded to the servers. This is real spyware stuff-chat...

During the past two evenings a curious spectre has appeared in the lower right quandrant of my computer monitor. It is an appeal from "Viewpoint Media Ware" that demands I either a.) enable it, b.) visit their website, or c.) find out more about these people. A "right click" on the window did not bring up any menu to disable it, close it, or ban it. Far be it from me to click on any executables without knowing where I'm headed. I could not close the window without shutting down altogether, which I did. After booting up again, I did...

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 - Add personal computers to the list of throwaways in the disposable society. On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He discarded the whole computer. Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine. He...

Unwanted software slithered into Patti McMann's home computer over the Internet and unleashed an annoying barrage of pop-up ads that sometimes flashed on her screen faster than she could close them. Annoying, for sure. But the last straw came a year ago when the pop-ups began plugging such household names as J.C. Penney Co. and Capital One Financial Corp., companies McMann expected to know better. Didn't they realize that trying to reach people through spyware and its ad-delivering subset, called adware, would only alienate them? "It irritated the heck out of me," said McMann, a 45-year-old former corporate executive from...

The next time you run a scan with your anti-spyware tool, it might miss some programs. Several anti-spyware firms, including Aluria, Lavasoft, and PestPatrol, have quietly stopped detecting adware from companies like Claria and WhenU--a process called delisting. Those adware companies have been petitioning anti-spyware firms to delist their software; other companies have resorted to sending cease-and-desist letters that threaten legal action. In most cases it's difficult for customers to determine whether their anti-spyware tool has delisted anything and, if so, which adware it skips. "When a spyware program gets delisted, users won't be aware of its presence," says Harvard...

Drudge is certainly becomming the clutter king of the net. To avoid being inudated by spyware and popups I'm not only running IE's native popup stopper under XP but I'm also forced to use Panicware's commercial version.Drudge is also one of the few sites that can defeat Firefox's Adblock extension. It may take 4 tries to eliminate his ever changing URL for his top banner during a single session and then the URLs are different the next day.If it gets worse, color Mat gone on the "Links' menu.

Can anyone help? When I click on a link I often get the message: Error Not Found The requested URL was not found on this server and the URL that pops up is: http://www.adsourcecorp.com/404_not_found.htm Any help would be appreciated. mcenedo

In an attempt to pre-empt computer hackers, Microsoft is developing "virtual" PCs to scour the web for previously unseen attack code. At the software giant's Cybersecurity and Systems Management lab, based in Washington State, US, researchers are building a squad of the virtual PCs - created in software rather than hardware - to explore the darker corners of the world wide web. To any website they visit, the machines appear to be a normal home computer. But the PCs are seeking out code designed to attack a computer and will sound an alarm if any code is executed in contravention...

New York (AHN)- Researchers at Symantec Corp. bought a brand new PC this year and connected it to the internet. They browsed without installing any kind of protection software. After one hour of surfing five or six children's sites and clicking around, they discovered the computer had been loaded with 359 different pieces of adware software. With travel sites averaging 64 adware programs and sports sites 17, kid's sites clearly lead the pack in adware inundation. The ads offer free Ipods or "punch the president" type games, which kids find inticing. Clicking on one of these banner ads is followed...

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit against Web marketer Intermix Media on Thursday, charging it with being a source of adware and spyware programs that hinder online commerce and security. Spitzer's office, describing the suit as the "most sweeping case to date involving programs that redirect Web addresses, add toolbars and deliver pop-up ads," said it arose from a six-month investigation of Intermix. The probe found that Intermix was installing advertising software on home computers without informing the owners that it was doing so, Spitzer's office said. In a statement, Spitzer framed the case as an effort...

CoolWebSearch, adware that generates more than $300 million a year for its maker, is the "Ebola" of adware, and easily the most significant spyware threat on the Internet, an anti-spyware security firm said Wednesday. CoolWebSearch, which comes in multiple forms, can hijack Web search errors, usurp the browser's home page, and modify other Internet Explorer settings. Recent variants have taken to exploiting vulnerabilities in IE, such as those in the HTML Help system, to install on PCs. "It's only purpose is to get on a PC, and stay on that PC, even at the cost of killing that machine," said...

I have been a Mac user since the first one rolled off the assembly line. I love them, and still have one, which I am using to write this post. The problem is that I bought a notebook PC because I have some work related needs that I couldn't use my Mac for. My teenage son asked if he could check his email on the PC, and like an idiot, I said yes. He walked off with the notebook, and went to a web site that a friend had told him was "really cool". It became infected with spyware, ad...

Security experts issued a warning this morning after detecting infections caused by Searchmeup, the first adware to use the Exploit/LoadImage vulnerability which downloads itself onto computers without the user's permission. Panda Software's PandaLabs warned that the pages from which Searchmeup are downloaded also contain a series of exploits to download other malware onto the computer, such as the Tofger.AT Trojan, which steals banking passwords, Dialer.BB and Dialer.NO, and adware called Adware/TopConvert. Searchmeup is downloaded onto the computer when the user visits maliciously coded web pages. Once installed it changes the home page to that of a search engine that displays...

Free utility can reveal rootkits, hidden software used by hackers and crooks. Computer users have yet another tool they can use to find out if stealthy malware--such as a hidden virus, Trojan horse, or spyware application--has found its way onto their PC. The tool, called RootkitRevealer, permits Windows users to scan a computer for the telltale presence of certain kinds of malicious software. Advertisement That type of software, known in the security industry as a rootkit, "is a technology that's used by malware--viruses or trojans--to actively hide themselves," says RootkitRevealer's co-creator, Mark Russinovich. Rootkits can also help hackers gain greater...

The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a "parasite," to a federal privacy advisory board. An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday. "This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department's mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States," Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the department's chief privacy officer, said in a statement. Claria bundles its pop-up advertising software with ad-supported networks such as Kazaa....

Security experts are advising that spyware that targets browsers from the Mozilla Foundation has been spotted--a threat that could worsen as its Firefox browser takes market share from Microsoft. Stu Sjouwerman, the founder of Sunbelt Software, said on Tuesday that the anti-spyware company has discovered what it believes is the first spyware to take aim at surfers using Mozilla browsers. Richard Stiennon, the vice president of threat research at Webroot Software, which also develops anti-spyware tools, said that the malicious software does not target Firefox specifically. "According to my research team, this site does not target Firefox, but it does...

Adware infections net the purveyors of slimeware software around $3 a year for each infected PC, according to estimates from anti-spyware firm Webroot Software. Using this figure and stats from its own malware auditing services, Webroot guesstimates the illicit advertising market underpinned by adware infection of home and business PCs could be worth up to $1.6bn a year. According to Richard Stiennon, VP of threat research at Webroot, the illicit ad market enjoys approximately the same growth rate as the legitimate market. But that's where the similarities end. "It [adware] has a similar bus model and some of the same...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Someone placed surveillance software on sheriff's office computers, apparently enabling unauthorized access to sensitive information about prisoner movements, confidential homeland security updates and private personnel files. Sheriff John Whetsel said Monday Spector Pro, monitoring software designed to track every detail of computer activity, was found last week on three computers in his office. Whetsel said he discovered the software on his own computer when he ran a spyware detector out of curiosity. A scan of all sheriff's computers also found the application on the computers of Maj. John Waldenville and Capt. David Baisden. Waldenville leads the...

A malicious script that spies on Apple Mac users was discovered over the weekend. The malware, which has been dubbed ‘Opener’ by Mac user-groups, disables Mac OS X’s built-in firewall, steals personal information and can destroy data. Security experts say these traits are common among the thousands of viruses targeting Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system but are virtually unheard of amongst the Apple Macintosh community. Paul Ducklin, Sophos’ head of technology in the Asia Pacific, told ZDNet Australia that the malware, which Sophos calls Renepo, is designed to infect any Mac OS X drives connected to the infected system and...

JANUARY 05, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Spyware legislation that would allow fines of up to $3 million for makers of software that steals personal information from a user's computer or hijacks its browser will get a second look after the U.S. Congress failed to pass the legislation in 2004. Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) reintroduced an antispyware bill yesterday that passed the House of Representatives last year but failed in the Senate. The Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act, or SPY ACT, defines most functions performed by so-called spyware as unfair business practices subject to U.S. Federal Trade Commission...

SAN JOSE – Susan Love's problems began with a smile. The New York City fund-raiser clicked on a happy-face attachment in a friend's e-mail last year. The virus crashed her computer within an hour. Love, 57, salvaged her data. But within a few months her computer's performance slowed to a crawl. In December 2003, she upgraded to a Sony Vaio with an extra-large monitor and Microsoft Windows XP operating system. Within a few days, "spyware" – programs that sneak onto computers uninvited – began sponging up valuable memory. Then her e-mail stopped arriving. Instead of crafting holiday e-mails, she spent...

I am a frequent Drudgereport.com visitor - in fact, it's my homepage. Unfortunately, Matt Drudge is using a new type of popup ad which will open the window even if you use anti-popup software. I am also an afficianado, as I'm sure many other FReepers are, of anti-popup software. I don't mind seeing ads when I browse, but popups are very intrusive and often end up crashing my web browser, or hanging it for a minute or three at a time. BTW, the anti-popup software I use is built into the free & excellent Google Toolbar, available from http://toolbar.google.com/ I...

Companies that use free software downloads to target Web surfers with annoying ads are turning on each other to keep customers--and the cash they generate--for themselves. The tactic is in the spotlight in a little-noticed legal dispute unfolding in Seattle. Caribbean-based ad company Avenue Media last month accused New York-based DirectRevenue of using competing software to detect and delete Avenue Media's Internet Optimizer program from its customers' computers.According to the Nov. 24 complaint, DirectResponse's software detects Internet Optimizer and then sends a command to "kill" the program, a process that deletes its files from the PC registry and from the...

Corporate PCs 'riddled with spyware' By John Leyden Published Thursday 2nd December 2004 17:23 GMT Corporate systems are riddled with spyware, according to a study by an anti-spyware firm. Companies voluntarily using Webroot's Corporate SpyAudit tool had an average of 20 nasties per PC, Webroot reports.Most of the items found were harmless cookies. But average five per cent of the PCs scanned had system monitors and 5.5 per cent had Trojan horse programs, the two most nefarious and potentially malicious forms of spyware. The audit - based on scans of more than 10,000 systems, used by more than 4,100 companies...

I need help getting rid of an adware file that hijacks my browser and changes my "Home" page "About:blank" The Adware file is something called CWS/hijack.html and the CWS stands for Cool Web Site. I have tried everything and it just won't go away. Any help would be greatly appreciated

What is with the underlined words/phrases in FR?

The site has multiple forums for various computing problems, but the overwhelming number of inquiries in the last year has dealt with spyware, which on the site has a variety of less neutral names, "scumware" being one of the more polite. Scumware had been an epidemic; in the last year it grew into a pandemic, said Steve Wechsler, one of those drawn to Eshelman's site. Wechsler was tending bar at a public golf course in South San Francisco when he bought his first computer less than a decade ago. "I brought it home and turned it on, clicked on Netscape...

Strange start up program. Cannot delete. Chooses new "gobbledygook" name every time the computer is restarted. Have tried several adware/spyware programs. They do not flag it. Internet search reveals no info. Does anyone know what QNCTFQOE.EXE is?

I am having a problem with my computer at work. While connected to the internet, with MSN as the main page, I am now receiving lots of popup ads which I never had before. When I am on FR, whichever thread I am monitoring, there are lots of keywords which are highlighted such as "sex", "love" and others. Highlighted in the sense that they appear to be hyperlinks. When I right click on any one of them and click Properties, the box thing shows a URL of ...Adinstall or something to that effect. I have also had, right out of...

Go to this page of Major Geeks, and let me know what free spyware/adware you in-the-know recommend. It has the following: About:Buster - A removal tool for Home Search Assistant, ie; res://random.dll/index.html#12345 Ad-aware Messenger Service Plugin - Plugin for Ad-aware that will help with the Messenger Service pop-ups. Ad-aware OE/WM Control - Enable or disable the Windows Messenger which loads with Outlook Express. Ad-Aware SE HexDump Plug-in - Find out the URL of the originator of a cookie in Ad-Aware SE. Ad-Aware SE Personal - Scan your system for ad-supported software components and remove them. Ad-Aware SE Personal (Executable Only)...

New Trojan Kills Adware Program isn't entirely benevolent: it also downloads files to infected PCs. Paul Roberts, IDG News Service Thursday, October 07, 2004 A new Trojan horse program that attacks and removes troublesome advertising software, known as "adware," is circulating on the Internet, according to antivirus company Symantec. The program, called Downloader.Lunii, was discovered earlier this week. When run, it attempts to kill off computer processes and delete files used by common adware programs like Powerscan and BargainBuddy. However, Lunii is not entirely benevolent. Like other Trojan horse programs, it also modifies the configuration of Microsoft Windows machines and...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Orange County man was arrested Wednesday on charges of possessing child pornography. Thomas Allen Bispo confessed to looking at the porn on his work laptop. Orange County detectives think Bispo was probably away on business when he was looking at child porn on a laptop. But he was using his company-issued computer and he thought he had deleted the porn. Deputies arrested 61-year-old Thomas Allen Bispo after finding 27 pornographic images of young children on his laptop. Detectives were actually tipped off. Bispo worked at Sypris, Inc., an engineering testing firm in Orange County. He...

Web surfers battling "spyware" face a new problem: so-called spyware-killing programs that install the same kind of unwanted advertising software they promise to erase. Millions of computers have been hit in recent years by ads and PC-monitoring software that comes bundled with popular free downloads, notably music-swapping programs. The problem has attracted dozens of companies seeking to profit by promising to root out the offending software. But some software makers are exploiting the situation, critics allege, turning demand for antispyware software into a launch pad for new spyware attacks. A small army of angry Web users has set up a...

Last spring, the public got a firsthand look at spyware's pervasiveness when it was discovered that peer-to-peer file-swapping app Kazaa was bundling a program designed to form a giant distributed network -- composed of Kazaa users' computers -- that could transmit information back to Brilliant Digital Entertainment, the company that created it. In effect, this network would use people's computers to perform work for Brilliant Digital. The program had been distributed with Kazaa since the fall of 2001, according to a document that Brilliant filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April. Even though Brilliant said it...

Michael Sands CMO at Orbitz Depending upon whom you ask, Michael Sands is either a successful user of pop-under ads or an apologist for them. As the chief marketing officer for Orbitz, a Chicago-based online travel site founded by American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United Airlines in 1999, Sands has overseen pop-under ad blitzes like Orbitz's current "shear the sheep" campaign. Sands, who joined Orbitz in late 2000 after highly successful work in e-commerce and integrated marketing for Oldsmobile during the late 90s, doesn't seem rattled by the complaints of agitated web surfers. He has seen that the ads are...