[Techtalk] Getting rid of spyware

Betty Johnson betjohns at shaw.ca
Thu Mar 11 10:19:45 EST 2004



----- Original Message -----
> 
> And it was said by Dan Richter->
> > My wife installed some free product she got off the Internet, 
> and now
> > she's got something stuck in her browser that opens pop-up windows
> > with ads at random occasions. (This is true even when she's on the
> > corporate internal website, which of course doesn't have ads.)
> > Needless to say, she's using Windoze and Internet Exploiter.
> 
> What happened to your wife is called "Browser Hijacking". I second the
> recommendation for AdAware on Windows, it's what I use on my 
> Windows box
> at the office. Since this is spyware, AdAware may not remove it. Check
> out the FAQ and the forums at www.spywareinfo.com. They describe 
> how to
> remove a browser hijack and prevent further occurances.
> 
> The bottom line - by default IE allows any and all ActiveX scripts to
> run. It is usually an ActiveX script that installs a hijack or spyware
> if you get it from your browser. To prevent slimeware from infecting
> your PC via the browser, either run another browser which is safe 
> (suchas Mozilla or Firefox *plug*) or disable loading unsigned ActiveX
> components in IE.
> 

Both Ad-Aware and Spybot-Search and Destroy are excellent products and will remove spyware that has been installed on your Windows system. Javacool has a couple of excellent products, specifically SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard, which when installed can prevent spyware from being installed on the computer. It alerts you to a potential harmful change in the registry which you can tell it not to do and thus stop spyware from being installed in the first place. Both these products are donation-ware so you can donate to their development if you wish but it is not necessary.

Hope this helps.



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