In the past few days we have had some wonderful and very serious discussions on the board here with regard to the "Pest Infestations" our beloved Computers can unfortunately pick up while we "surf the net".

• The Things You Learn About Spy Ware!
• Tips & Tweaks Submitted by Our Boomies Updated 9/01/04

To be sure these Virtual maladies can slow down our systems and as a direct result can render them practically useless. And just what will
we do if we sit idley by and let these vermin
dictate what goes on inside the privacy of our own Computers? Not be playing Myst4,Lights Out, Silver Earring or online games much, I can promise you.


We must be ever vigilant in our defense
against this type of scumm! How do we do this???

Simple:

Education

• Knowledge is Power
  
  I'm placing here a few links to get you started.
  </font><ul type="square">
• The Spyware Test Guide CT-4,2004 by Eric L Howes
  This Test pits 20 Anti-Spyware and Anti-Adware against 15 malicious programs and/or files downloaded off the net from Grokster. It offers
  a clear:
  Results Database
  key
  # of False-Positives for each program
  # of files removed "X/134"
  Links for possible downloads and further information
• Download.com\'s Spyware Central
  Downloads.com has an immense amount of info packed into this little page. A big Thanks to Shaolinphil and Johnboy298 for bringing it to my attention.
• Pest Patrol Database
  Here you'll be able to locate and get a description of many pests with don't belong on your system. Example: Type in:HOTBAR and just see what comes up!
• The SPYWAREBLOG from SPYWARE Warrior
  Lots a very informative bits of information on this subject complete with referrals, archives
  and links.
• C NET\'s NEWS.COM
  As Shaolinphil and Johnboy298 suggests this topic is a must read
• Eric Howes Privacy & Security Page
  If you Bookmark nothing else from this article, I implore you to Bookmark this link. Read it, Use it, Live by it.
• Spyware/Adware/Hijackware Tools
  Here are lists (including links) of various types of software to use against the fight of keeping your system safe from those who would invade our privacy, virtual telemarketing, do our systems harm or worse.
• Rogue Anti-Spyware
  Just like in reality, our virtual world is full of STRANGERS. Not everyone is our friend (present company excepted, of course.) There are those who with predatory like tactics are out to make a buck at the expense of the inexperienced Internet user. It is so important to READ before you download... and know how to search in the appropriate places before choosing those programs which might do you more harm than good.
• Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Websites by Eric L Howes and presented by Spy Warrior.com
  The title really does say it all, Shaolinphil: My eyes have been opened and I am grateful to you. I actually had tried a few of these programs on the list unaware that they were not what they seemed to be. No wonder my computer crashed last week. (ADAWARE knockoff... and believe me, you need to use the REAL DEAL, my friends!!!)
  Here on this page of his marvelous site Mr Howes lists </font><ul type="square">
• As mentioned in the link above. Quite startling
• Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Sites
  I don't recommend checking any of these out...Lord know what one might catch... But it's really nice to know that the research was done.
• Clones/Knockoffs
  Complete with comments
• Trustworthy Anti-Spyware Products
  Here are where the recommendations are listed, along with some valuable tips for further protection and we can do before downloading anything.
  </font><ul type="square">
• Run an anti-spyware scanner (or two...)
• Install anti-spyware protection
• Lock down your browser
• Securely configure the Internet zone
• Add bad sites to the Restricted sites zone
• Use an alternative browser

[*]Other Anti-Spyware Tools
[*]If Your PC is Infested w/ Spyware...
Here he offers concrete suggestions in plain English to try to correct the problem.
[*]Google & Anti-Spyware Products
A very informative warning about using the paid search results. They aren't always what they might seem to be. Learn to use your best judgement.
[*]More Information
Finally, the bottom of this page suggests more links for further reading and education.</ul><font size="3" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"></ul><font size="3" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"></ul><font size="3" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I also was very pleased to note that Mr. Howes does not belong nor is financed by any of the groups or sites he writes about. Very objective. Well done, Mr. Howes!


It is truly my wish that all of you will take the time to learn about this very grave danger that we all face every time we connect to the Internet.
It will never go away, it will only get worse and more and more virulent. I feel that it touches all of us here at Gameboomers and everyone else who surfs online. I receive countless emails asking to help with a game only to find that part of the reasons it won't work is because their systems are so heavily bogged down with this garbage. It is my sincere hope that this research will be of some help to one and all.

As Always
Inferno

Very nice compilation!

Wow Inferno,

Thanks for all the look-sees and links..keep this on board for awhile, when the new baby arrives it shall be protected..
I know I'll have to read; but any mention of how to keep MS from putting stuff on your computer even when you say no....?

Ingie

Inferno, you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for all that work!

You very welcome,
Remember : The Truth is out there!

Inferno

Sorry, I just couldn't resist

I know.....that why I wrote it.
I couldn'y resist either
Inferno

I am wondering as my brain cannot comprehend all that the first post explained. Odd, Mary goes to Cnet to download a spyware program. Pop-up comes up but had a feeeeling! Checked it's description against what was supposed to be downloaded. Not the same. So I followed the links to correct place and used the indicated down pointing arrows from which to download. Is this another threat?
Am I a ditz? Arghh....

My husband and i, just finish clean our 4 computers, from been bugged and acked.
We never had this kind problem before. And after 2 weeks, of hard work, we finally cleaned them up.

We use many bug snappers, registry cleaners, firewalls and addresses inquisitors.

Some brend are the same of the ones are posted here.
Here`s another helpfull one:

http://hijackthis.de/index.php

It is a log file, and is free. It will show your files and what they are for and how can couse truble when some ackers try to get in your system.

Hijackthis, will scan and fix it. But i think if some of you din`t know about it. you can try it out. You be glade you did.

Catlee that is wonderful. I'd already mentioned in the Tips and Tweaks aboutHijackThis! I'm an avid user as well.
What I particularly like about it is that if your not sure just what to put into your "ignore list" (save) and what to "fix" (delete) you just copy the log file and go over to thier forum and post it... they will gladly tell you what it good and what may be not so good.
It's also mentioned by Eric Howes in his article: Spyware/Adware/Hijackware Tools

and in these articles as well:
To Be Forewarned Is To Be Forearmed!
Arghhhh-spyware and viruses-
file name warning
Protection programs
Tips & Tweaks Submitted by Our Boomies

Great program.

Inferno

NOTE OF WARNING:

DO NOT USE the "Virtual Bouncer Uninstaller" that the link in the previous post lists!! It is made by the people who made Virtual Bouncer, and leaves remnants of VB ON YOUR MACHINE!!! VB then REactivates itself on your machine. No...I don't know HOW or WHY, but it indeed DOES.

I had one helluva time getting rid of Virtual Bouncer and suggest that you do not trust ANYTHING that this company makes.

To rid myself once and for all of VB...after trying EVERYTHING else...I did what NOW is obvious to me, and ran a search on my PC deleting EVERY SINGLE FILE that had virtual bouncer in it...and trust me...there were a LOT. I had run SpyBot and AVG directing them to delete it, and yet still...files remained. I had to manually delete everything attached to VB.

The link you are describing is to get rid of Virtual Bouncer (which is malware) not the program itself... You could have also gotten rid of it quickly by using Spy Sweeper as well.

I've sent an email off to Mr Howes and hopefully he will investigate it for us. Perhaps you should send an email as well describing exactly what happenned to you did, Girlgeek. Hopefully, he will investigate it further and either place the link on his "suspect programs page" or tell you how to properly cofigure it. The links posted on the page that I gave are supposed to be safe for download unless otherwise noted as having been tested by him. He does also have a "suspect page as well" Keep in mind he doesn't endorse any of the programs or links that he lists unless there is a notation attesting to that fact.

It still amazes me that so many people choose not configure their browsers properly (be it IE or not)if at all. Fully knowing about the dangers out on the web. I encourage all of you to check out the "tools" and "internet options" button of your browser and take the time to configure them properly. The very first post in this thread talks about this and mentions a link for it.

Inferno

Inferno

As promised, I have written to Eric Howes regarding the problems our poor Girlgeek had to face with the removal of "Virtual Bouncer"

His kind reply is as follows:

I have replied to his email and asked him to retest the uninstaller program to see if further analysis might be warranted... I'm waitng for his reply.


Inferno

Thanks, Inferno! That's great info there, and I will hopefully not need it!! BUT...if I EVER encounter that damnable Virtual Bouncer AGAIN...I will be looking for this thread!! That was THE worst time I EVER had removing anything from my computer (other than AOL, Norton, Quicktime, or Kazaa)!! LOL

Just got the reply from Eric and what we both were thinking was correct. Unfortunately you had more than one instance of Virtual Bouncer on your system... which really does make sense now to me.

HijackThis! and Spy Sweeper would have caught all instances in all files where its tentacles might have reached.

I've got to tell ya though ... if you haven't already done it ... configure your browser. Put those restricted sites in, set up prompting for third party cookies, and always delete your cookies/files and history after each and every internet session. Since I've done this, the only creepy crawlies I get on my system now are the ones from Bad Mojo!!! lol

Inferno

Thanks so much, Inferno. I have been trying to figure out a way to get rid of DSO Exploit. Apparently Spybot does not kill it. I will look through your list tomorrow to see if there is some way to drive a stake through its heart.

I really appreciate you taking the time and going to the trouble to put together a list to help fend off these attacks. I am not very computer savy and get very frustrated trying (and frequently failing) to protect myself from invisible enemies.

Jayne

that is the best advice inferno. that is what I did a while ago. It has cut down on bugitos tremendously!

If you haven't done so, you might think about making a post on how to do this on 98 and on XP for those of us who aren't PC savvy!

The last two versions of Norton AV will also track and remove spyware/malware from your machine.
Viz

So glad that I ran across this thread. I downloaded spybot and ran it: eeeg gads!!!

Cleaned it all up, then immunized my stystem. Ran it again when I was through surfing the next day and got an error message:

Error during check!
BackOrifice.B (Datei C\:Windows\wininit (The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.)

When I looked in windows all I saw was a notepad file for this and I couldn't open it, got the same error message that it was being used by another process.

My question is: is this being used by something bad that has gotten into my machine, or is it being used by some program that I've got running? I closed all of my programs before running Spybot, so I'm not sure what it could be.

Sequoia

A Google search found this information on the Spybot problem

http://forums.net-integration.net/index.php?showtopic=24389

And from here
http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/14046.html

something about an update here
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4392.html

Thanks Jenny for the info. I've been reading the boards and it sure is confusing. I can't tell if it is just an error message within the program itself, or is it missing the trojan BackOrifice. A lot of discussion on the boards about this problem. I downloaded a recent update (yesterdays) and hopefully this will address the problem

Sequoia

Try using HIJACKThis! and run the program....save the log and then post it in thier forum.....They are more then happy to help out.
Inferno

Seems like the update fixed things. I ran Spybot again and it found some things to fix, but it did not show up the error message again, so it looks like they fixed the problem.

I found it interesting that I went to a link for an article about spyware that was posted at PCWorld.com and I had trouble accessing it since I kept getting a message that the site wanted to download spyware onto my machine!!!!


Sequoia

Thank you for this composite source of info Inferno!!!