On the Prevalence and Removal of Spyware? 38
oo7tushar asks: "There's a lot of spyware out there these days. As a Windows/Linux user I'm concerned about what spyware is installed on my machines and I'm very concerned about this issue when it comes to Windows. A few questions for the masses: What are the most common spying applications that are installed? How do I get rid of them without getting rid of the parent application? Have you encountered spyware on Linux?"
Removing Spyware (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Removing Spyware (Score:3, Informative)
Ad Aware does the following, plus more:
* Removes registery settings belonging to Ad software.
* Removes Ad software
* Removes cookies from ad sites
etc
it works pretty well
Re:Removing Spyware (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Removing Spyware (Score:1)
Re:Removing Spyware (Score:3, Informative)
-OZ
AdAware is cool, but... (Score:4, Informative)
I'm actually pretty sloppy about privacy. But a lot of spyware -- including Gator's -- hooks into Explorer and other shell programs at a very basic level. Results range from an irritating loss of response to maddening crashes and lockups.
AdAware is quite good. But you also need Ref-Update (to keep your AdAware signature file current) and Ad-Search (to help avoid downloading spyware in the first place). All three available here [lavasoft.de].
Watching for Spyware (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Watching for Spyware (Score:1)
Re:Watching for Spyware (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, but if you were writing a spy-ware program, would you use a non-standard port to send it out?
I'd just send it over HTTP on port 80. Or better yet, HTTPS on 443, so no content-sniffing could be done on it. Would you be willing to stop all web browsing traffic leaving your home/site/corporation?
The only way, then, to stop this would be to block traffic to particular sites, but if the traffic goes to microsoft.com, you're hosed 'cause you *need* to go there at least monthly to fix whatever's currently broken.
If these programs aren't already doing this, then they're even dumber than I thought. Unless *I* am dumber than I thought (and I admit I can be pretty stupid at times) and I've missed something obvious here.
Re:Watching for Spyware (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Watching for Spyware (Score:2, Informative)
Your malware still won't work. The better Windows firewalls (ZoneAlarm and Tiny Personal Firewall) do an MD5 check on the executable before allowing traffic. If you patch the executable or try to access a port which is allowed to only one process, the activity will be blocked and/or logged, depending on your firewall rules.
This is one added layer of security that an external firewall cannot have. Only client-native software can authoritatively check the process generating the network activity. External firewalls block only behaviour, not process-owners. Ideally, you want both, but for a Windows client, both ZA and TPF work well.
A psychological consideration (Score:2, Interesting)
And the harsh connotations this name conjures up shall help to remind the layperson of the seriousness of this problem.
Re:A psychological consideration (Score:1)
Try Who's Watching Me (Score:4, Informative)
PCMagazine... (Score:2)
Re:PCMagazine... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:PCMagazine... (Score:1)
Re:PCMagazine... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:PCMagazine... (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.radsoft.net/resources/software/revie
They're notorious spammers, and tests showed it's not all that effective.
D
Re:Another fucking moron turns to "ask slashdot" (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Another fucking moron turns to "ask slashdot" (Score:1)
Re:Another fucking moron turns to "ask slashdot" (Score:2)
Yeah whatever (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yeah whatever (Score:1)
Re:Yeah whatever (Score:1)
Seven steps...hmmm..
Windows Anonymous....
Step One: Admit you have a problem.
Step Two:....
A Website for SpyWare (Score:2, Informative)
I used this website to kill several SpyWare programs on my Windows machine at work. So far they don't mention any SpyWare software for Linux.
Label them as a VIRUS... (Score:2)
At the very least, they should be identified to the user during a virus scan.
Just because the user "agreed" to some insignificant and cryptic blurb in a 14-page EULA, it doesn't mean that this type of software is legitimate. I'd guess that less than 0.1% of users actually READ the EULA anyways. Some of the less legitimate ones don't even have an EULA or "spyware" clause.
MadCow.
Re:Label them as a VIRUS... (Score:2, Informative)
Ummm (Score:1)
Re:Ummm (Score:1)
Flood 'em (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone needs to reverse-engineer the protocols used by these programs and start shoving gigabytes of bogus data down their throats.
In short order they'll either cut your IP range off, in which case you've done a fine service for your ISP's fellow customers, or they'll start aggregating clearly bogus data which will decrease its marketability to their clients.
Are they going to take you to court and say "Your honor, we were secretly spying on this person and he's started lying to us about what he was doing online..."?
spyware list sites. (Score:1)