SCUMWARE- Are they winning the war?

condra

Hi Id like to know peoples opinions on spyware, adware etc.

I have just reinstalled windows since I found it very difficult to rid myself of some nasty stuff forced upon my harddrive. I had some exe(s) which kept renaming itself when removed from the registry. The main symptom was popup windows but also my homepage being changed and RAM being gobbled up invisably. I think it was zingo or coolwebsearch or something.- there were many suspect things running.

Im still trying to figure out where the virus came from and Im beginning to suspect Flashget. - which I shall not be reinstalling. The only other thing I can think of is some sort of self install or trick install from my browser or limewire..?? i dunno.. mcafee didnt raise an eyelid anyways.......


I had previously thought that only idiots who download sex search engine stuff etc were liable to contract suspect files but I was wrong.

Ive come to the conclusion that the war is being won by unscrouplous, immoral scumbags who dont care what sort of suffering they put people through just to make a quick buck. It has cost me hours and hours of hard work and god knows what it has cost many other people. The fact that pornography is being forced on people, kids being no exception I find disturbing. And there is so much cynical stuff on the internet it makes me sick. Theres even fake antivirus software which installs scumware on ur machine.

Im a very angry man right now and I swear to god if I could kick the **** out of someone who makes money out of that sort of **** right now I would find it hard to stop kicking.

I wish so much that surfing the internet didnt have to be such a constant battle against increasingly sleazy and cynical advertising campaigns. Its so so hard to avoid though.

hawkmoon269

Yeah, unfortunately I'd entirely agree. I've had problems with this kind of crap also. At this stage I don't even surf the net as such any more and just go on 3 or 4 sites that I trust, mainly discussion forums like this one.

crashedmind

My solution is to use 2 PCs - an older one for surfing and a newer one that is disconnected from the net.
Once I setup the old PC with os and drivers I back up the partition. Periodically, I restore this partition to clear out all the gunk that accumulates.
The 2 PCs are not networked - I can transfer files via usb stick, cd, etc... so I know exactly what's being put on the new PC.

Almost the same could be done using one PC configured with 2 partitions/OSs - one for surfing, one for not surfing - not quite as secure/convenient.

In fact on any windows PC I setup, I always install the os on a separate partition also - say 3GB - this is purely for recovery purposes when the OS on the main partition gives trouble.

In general, if it's a windows PC on the net it will become infested. You can reduce the infestation rate by using Firefox instead of IE, using spybot and adaware etc... but no matter what you do, you need a recovery plan.

Note that I am not window bashing here...

Capt'n Midnight

Two interesting stastics
- about half of all crashes on newer PC's are spyware related and it only takes a few minutes for an unpatched/unprotected windows PC to get infected. The first is from Ireland the second from the UK - so I'm not extrapolating from US figures.

Microsoft are finally doing something about security but I feel it will slow down the rate rather than be a complete cure. ISP's aren't doing enough filtering , but commercial filtering packages cost money so I'd lay a lot of the blame at the antivirus companies, because they treat anti-malware as a seperate purchasable product to antivirus and because most antivirus programs Don't have the Fix/Cure/Delete option ticked as default ( FFS. how many people actually set out to BUY antivirus software that doesn't REMOVE viruses etc. but that's what they get - and worse many AV's revert back to default settings on reinstall - I've even seen it on updates ! )

Asok

I'd have to say some of the causes of this are machines being shipped and say Nav being installed and the user thinks they are fine but they usually only get a 2 month sub to updates and once the two months are up they just dont bother to sub or get a free version

Chalk

meh common sense should prevail on personal pcs,
ive been virus free for over 2 years,
regualrm scans should clear out any spyware that sneaks on preventing further damage,

in many cases a properly configured software firewall will stop any or all spyware threats.

i would recommend firefox as it will stop alot of things without bothering the user, also but it isnt esential , i was running ie6 up until recently.

the main place where this type of thing is gaining a foothold is in unprotected compaines, with staff installing games and toolbars left right and centre,
just my opinion.

condra

Chalk, in my opinion, common sense will only get you so far. Most PC users will want file sharing, download manager, compression utility, file converters, and more. Its easy to dress up scumware as something usefull but not so easy to detect same.

I wonder how Firefox is more secure than IE- what exactly does it stop? I thought you would have to click on some download link or allow some active x control but perhaps Im wrong- Id like to know more about this please if anyone can tell me.

Is there a site where you can search a database/list for security info on a certain application?

That would have been usefull for me a few weeks ago when I installed FLASHGET, based on a reccommendation here at BOARDS.IE!!! - It was fine for about a week until the ads started popping up every friggin half hour.

Perhaps we should make a list here of applications which are best avoided. It might go somewhere in the fight against scumware.

Capt'n Midnight

www.secunia.org


note: it says since 2003

msblaster hole lay hidden for at least 8 years.

Mozilla has no ActiveX , doesn't turn on all the unnecesary bells and whistles, is a lot better (but still not totally immune to) phishing and cross site scriptin