Comments on: The spyware that loved me

CNET News.com sleuth John Borland wanted to see what would happen to his PC if he loaded rogue spyware apps onto it. That's when all hell broke loose.

FCC moved quickly after Janet incident....

Seems to me the unauthorized entry/intrusion of millions of pcs is much more important than Janet's breast. I guess we know where the priorities lie. Common sense has been thrown out the window lately. What's best for the people has taken a back seat to politics. sigh

Another good reason to move to Mac!

After spending all weekend (again) disinfecting my wife's
Windows desktop and my son's Windows laptop of these kind of
programs. I am dumping Windows altogether and buying more (I
already have a powerbook) Macs.

The only problem is - with more people doing the same,
someone might notice all of us content users and try to break
our world. Long live Unix

Simple fix

You could have tried Ad-Aware 6 to remove all your spyware, its great free software that keeps my computer clean.

And for surfing, you should really try out Mozilla Firefox to avoid popups etc

[BillPStudios]

WinPatrol, Mysterware and FTC

Adaware and Spybot are great tools. I wish you could have inspected your machine using WinPatrol also. WinPatrol would have showed you the specific add-ons and their locations.

The FTC is still accepting comments from folks before their Spyware Workshop later this month. You should submit your experiences. There's a link on www.Mysterware.com.


Bill Pytlovany

[BillPStudios]

WinPatrol, Mysteryware and FTC

Adaware and Spybot are great tools. I wish you could have inspected your machine using WinPatrol also. WinPatrol would have showed you the specific add-ons and their locations.

The FTC is still accepting comments from folks before their Spyware Workshop later this month. You should submit your experiences. There's a link on www.Mysterware.com.


Bill Pytlovany

How about some simple openness??

Seems to me that the best way to fight this is to be very open about the source of all this spyware.
Why not start a directory where all information about them is available, with ranking (!!) etc. It would make them unpopular in a hurry!!
You might even make it possible for CNet subscribers to register new spyware!
And include some basic cleanout procedures.

Isn't this the way the Net is supposed to work?

[mpotter28]

"way the net is supposed to work"

nice idea but the net your talking about was destroyed years ago by money grubbing thiefs. The commericalization of the net has changed it from a information/communication highway to the preserve of people trying to sell you crap (just check out e-bay they'd sell dead babies if the bad press didn't cost them money. then there's your local ISP (or mine anyway (ma bell)) every year they increase their rate by more than inflation rate and never invest any of their gross (as in evil) profits in keeping their service running in any acceptible manner. I could go on but essentially it's time to begin the revolution. When you get a pop up window or spam call the evil crooks waste an hour of their time and then inform them that it just come to your attention that you have a policy against buying from firms that use invasive advertising and hang up

Spyware Removal

I have spent a couple of years now removing spyware for my customers. Before Ad-aware and Spybot were available, I was working to do it Manually. About 6 months ago a new form of spyware came along that these programs simply do not find. Antivirus programs say they are not a virus. They take up residence in the windows folder and c:\windows\system32 and or c:\documents and settings\(your username here) To remove these you have to goto safe mode and login as administrator. Unhide all files, Includeing protected system files. Search these folders for hidden files named simular to this eenmmdsfz.exe
The Hidden files when unhidden will have a whited out looking icon. They will never have a recognizable name. So if the name is a word do not delete it. Also legitimate files will have the manuafactuor of the file listed on the file's advanced properties. IE Microsoft, Symatec etc.
It usually takes a few try's to get them all but it can be done. AS A WARNING ALWAYS BACKUP IMPORTANT DATA BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANYTHING LIKE THIS :)

spyware

i have a very ugly spyware on my system, whenever I try to login to my Yahoo acct it will not let me,it switches to a browser called "about blank". I am not that computer savy, so I would need almost computer for dummies instructions on how to get rid of it. Can you help?