Mechling/Mechcom Support Group   

Adware - Spyware and other "malware"

   One of the largest growing problems in today's Internet experience is the plague of ad-ware and spy-ware. This nature of this problem changes on a daily basis so we will try to keep certain things as general as possible, and get into more detail when it comes to removal.

   Spy-ware is a generic term typically describing software whose purpose is to collect demographic and usage information from your computer, usually for advertising purposes. The term is also used to describe software that 'sneaks' onto the system or performs other activities hidden to the user. Spy-ware apps are usually bundled as a hidden component in mislabeled "freeware" and shareware applications downloaded from the Internet--a spyware module may be active on your computer at this moment without your knowledge. These modules are almost always installed on the system secretively, suggesting that spyware companies know how users feel about such software and figure that the best/only way to ensure its widespread use is to prevent the end-user from discovering it.

   As much as current spy-ware modules do to steal away users' privacy, they have the potential to be even more. Spy-ware exists as an independent, executable program on your system, and has the capability to do anything any program can do, including monitor keystrokes, arbitrarily scan files on your hard drive, snoop other applications such as word-processors and chat programs, read your cookies, change your default homepage, interface with your default Web browser to determine what Web sites you are visiting, and monitor various aspect of your behavior, "phoning home" from time to time to report this information back to the spy-ware's author. It can even notify the spy-ware company of any attempts to modify or remove it from the system. All the information obtained by the spy-ware can be used by the spy-ware author for marketing purposes, or sold to other companies for a profit.

   Many ad-ware apps install separate advertising components on your system, that run--downloading ads and wasting system resources--even if you're not using the software that installed them. Often, these components remain installed and continue to perform their unsightly duties even after the associated app has been uninstalled! Some ad-ware companies have even gone so far as to create "Advertising Trojan Horses", virus-like software programs that stealthily install themselves on your computer to perform unwanted advertising functions and violate your privacy whether you've installed the advertising-supported software or not. Advertising Trojans make clandestine connections to adservers behind your back, consume precious network bandwidth and may compromise the security of your data. The latest versions of these "ad-viruses" operate in full stealth and are nearly impossible to detect without advanced knowledge of the system environment. These include the Time Sink/Conducent TSADBOT and the Aureate advertising Trojans. One spy-ware module, TSADBOT, has been known to spoof a Windows system process so that it cannot be terminated and does not appear on Windows' End Task (Ctrl-Alt-Del) dialogue.

   Spy-ware modules have been implicated in computer problems including system slowdown, Illegal Operation errors, browser crashes, and even the "Blue Screen Of Death". While normal system stability has usually returned when the interfering spy-ware modules were deleted, one spy-ware product in particular will disable your Internet access if you try to delete it!

   Ad-ware will often dig its hooks into your Start-Up folder or system registry so that it loads every time you start the computer. Getting rid of these entries can keep the ad-ware at bay and let your computer boot faster. Note that using the program associated with a particular ad-Trojan may reinstall these references, and even the ad-Trojan itself. PKZip is notorious for this. (For this reason, it is important that you zap the associated ad-ware program as well, or at least make sure nobody runs it.)

Under some versions of Windows 98 and higher, there is a program called MSCONFIG that allows you to view and enable/disable Startup applications. This can be used (usually) to turn off auto-loading spy-ware components. (To run MSCONFIG if you have it, click on Start > Run, and type msconfig in the Run box.)

   If you are uncertain about the MSCONFIG applications, we also recommend downloading and installing  Norton Antivirus  from Symantec also has an effective ad-ware/spy-ware detector and remover integrated in with the anti-virus software.

   Microsoft has also released Windows Defender. It can be downloaded from Microsoft here.