Spyware - Different Types

Spyware is more dangerous than a virus. It can steal personal data and track your internet habits. It might be concealed in a free screensaver or other software that you download. Computer safety expert Leif Wheeler advises us to be aware of any offer of free software. Many times, spyware is hidden in legitimate software. Be cautious of deals offered by well-known companies. Crooks and thieves often create web sites that resemble Adobe, Google or Microsoft, says Wheeler. They instruct you to download upgrades which secretly contain spyware. Common sense should tell you to download things like screensavers or wallpaper only from a company's registered web site. Have a safety talk with anyone who uses your computer. Run an anti-spyware application. The schemes for stealing are the same, notes Wheeler. What's changed is the technology. The rest of us have to try to stay one step ahead.

There is a type of spyware that the New York Times has labeled as "Stealware" and what spyware researcher Ben Edelman refers to as "Click Fraud", also known as "Affiliate Fraud". The most notable vendors of this kind of spyware are 180 Solutions and WhenU. This spyware redirects the payment of the rightful affiliate's commission to the account of the spyware vendor.

An instance of spyware rarely "exists" alone. An afflicted computer can rapidly become corrupted with a lot of spyware devices. Frequently, users will notice erratic behavior and a decline of the system's operation. Spyware contamination can cause considerable inappropriate CPU activity, network traffic, disk usage and the slowing-down of the legitimate uses of these resources. Stability issues, system crashes and application crashes are also very common. Spyware which disrupts the networking software normally causes problems connecting to the Internet.

A Trojan horse, by definition, sneaks in a danger-some program cloaked as something acceptable. Many spywares get spread in this way. The representative of the spyware presents the program as a suitable utility, for example, as useful software or as a web-accelerator. Users then install the software not suspecting that it could do harm to their computer. A classic case of this is Bonze Buddy, a spyware application designed to trick children, claims that: "He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail, and download like no other friend you've ever had! He even has the ability to compare prices on the products you love and help you save money! Best of all, he's FREE!"

Often times, spyware programs are revealed by visibly presenting advertisements. Some spyware simply displays pop-up ads on a pre-determined schedule. For example, a pop-up may appear when the user opens a new browser window. Yet other types display ads when the user visits a specific type of site. Spyware developers use this as a selling point when pitching their wares to advertisers who want to buy ad placement in pop-ups shown when the user lands on a particular site. It is also one of the reasons why spyware programs collect and store information on user behavior.

Leif Wheeler began marketing on the internet in 1992 and he retired in 2004. Leif's internet-time is now spent researching and writing articles that improve everyone's internet experience. Benefit from Leif's vast experience at http://www.leifwheeler.com.

[tags]spyware, adware, viruses, adware[/tags]

Computer Viruses - 4 Easy Ways To Keep Your Computer Free Of Computer Infections

Computer viruses normally infect a computer via email. The following are some suggestions to make your computing safer.

1. The safest way to avoid a computer virus is not to open an attached email file - if you do not know what it is, who sent it to you, or you were not expecting it (even if it is from somebody that you know.)  This is especially true if the file has any of the following extensions: .pif, .vbs, .scr, .exe, since thsee files are programs that will run on your computer when opened.
    
2. Don't use the preview pane in Outlook. Some viruses can infect a computer just from the preview pane.
    
3. When in doubt, contact the sender. Write back to them and ask what is the attachment. If the attachment is valid, they will tell you what it is and what it does.
    
4. Delete a suspected message, by holding down the SHIFT key and hit DELETE.  This will permanently delete the message.  Just hitting the DELETE key (without the SHIFT key) does not remove the message, but simply moves the message to a deleted folder that can be opened.

However, if you just want to skip all the details and stop messing around with preventing computer viruses, just do what I did; download the a trial of anti virus software from a high quality software vendor, run the program and be done with it.

See the download link below for the automatic PC Tools AntiVirus™ software. I personally use this software to skip all the hazzles with computer viruses.

Since 1999, Nils Rognerud and ComputerRecover.com, has helped millions of users with free downloads of software utilities to repair, recover and optimize personal computers. Click here to see his recommendation for the best anti-virus software to remove computer infections. ComputerRecover.com

[tags]norton, symantics, free virus scan, virus, anti-virus, pixela, symantec[/tags]

Remove Nyxem Virus

Nyxem has been programmed to delete Power Point, Word, Excel and Adobe PDF files starting on the 3rd of February and the 3rd of every month thereafter, Besides destroying those types of files, the worm also attempts to disable anti-virus software so that it stops updating and it can also disable the mouse and keyboard of infected PCs. It has also been reported that some Internet users have already lost important files after becoming infected by the Nyxem worm mainly because the clock time on their computer was wrong.

Many antivirus manufacturers have already released patches for Nyxem, but it is estimated that thousands of computers are still infected. Most of these infected PCs are believed to be located in India, Turkey and Peru but many other computer systems worldwide could be hit soon as the Nyxem virus will mail copies of itself to contacts in a user's address book.

To prevent getting infected by the Nyxem worm and the loss of critical data files you should not open attachments or click on Web links within these e-mails, especially if these e-mails have a porn-related subject line. You should also backup any important files that you want to preserve. It is also recommended to scan your computer for viruses.

About the Author: Edward is the owner of http://www.thespywareterminator.com where you can download the highest rated spyware remover for 2005. This superior software removes many unwanted Internet parasites such as viruses, trojans, popups, adware and spyware. It has been downloaded over 35 million times by people in over 100 countries. It really works!

[tags]nyxem,nyxem.e,remove nyxem[/tags]

How Does A Virus Spread

"I love your site and your Tourbus Newsletter! I would like to know how a virus propagates over a network? If you get a virus on one computer - do other users on the network have to do anything to get infected? Is there a good way to protect against this?"

Great question! There are several ways for a virus to spread from one computer to another. Let's look at those, and ways to prevent the propagation of pestiferous programs.

Careful With That Paperclip...

The most common is via an email attachment. I'm not aware of any current exposures in popular email software that allow a virus to spread simply by opening or reading an email.

But plenty of people are still willing to open anything that pops into their inbox. Opening an attachment without verifying its contents with the sender is asking for trouble. Never run a program that you save to disk from an email attachment without anti-virus protection in place. The same goes for Word documents, which can have viruses in embedded macros.

Dubious Downloads

Another common way for a virus or spyware to spread is by piggybacking on other software that you download. If you just can't resist the latest toolbar, file-sharing gizmo, coupon dispenser or email enhancer, you may be at risk. Often these and other downloads come with malware, free of charge. Running a good anti-spyware program will reduce your risk.

Just Click NO!

Ever been to a website and gotten one of those "Click here to install and run {Whatever}" popups? Just click NO! Unless you know for sure that you need to press OK (such as when downloading security updates from Microsoft) then treat these popups as threats to your computer.

Sometimes It's NOT Nice to Share

If you are on a network, and you allow your hard drive to be shared (enabling other network users to read and write your files) then you are WIDE OPEN to the stupidity of the other users on the network. If any one of them got a virus, there's nothing to prevent it from copying itself to your computer via the network share. Unless you absolutely have to share your hard disk, don't. You can check to see if you have enabled sharing by right clicking on the drive icon in My Computer, then select Sharing.

The SneakerNet Menace

And don't forget portable media, such as floppies, CDROMs, and those nifty little flash drives that connect to a USB port. Assume that any file you copy from external media could be infected. Keeping your anti-virus protection enabled and updated should protect you here.

BOB RANKIN... is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin's website for more helpful articles and free tech support.

[tags]virus,anti virus software,virus control,trojan worms,trojan virus,spyware,removing spyware,tech tips[/tags]

Computer Viruses The Nasty Truth

The term, "virus", in computer technology, refers to a self replicating application that spreads by making copies of itself by inserting into other programs, other executables or documents, and when executed begins to perform harmful actions on the system. All computer viruses are deliberately created, not always malicious and some of them may be benign and simply annoying.

Non-Memory Resident and Memory Resident Viruses:

Non-Memory resident viruses, when they are executed, immediately look for other hosts that can be infected. When they infect these targets, they transfer control to the application program they infected. A non-resident virus has a finder module and a replication module. The finder module, once it finds a new file to infect, calls upon the replication module to infect that file.

Memory-Resident virus stays in the memory and do not look for hosts to infect when they are executed. It stays active in the background after its host program is terminated, and infects files as soon as they are opened or accessed by other programs or the operating system. It does have the replication module like the non-memory resident virus, but without the finder module.

Types of Computer Viruses:

File Viruses: These types of viruses are the most common, and mostly infect open files and program libraries on an operating system. The virus functions by inserting itself into a host file, modifies it in such a way that the virus is executed when the file is opened. They are also known as left viruses. Today, there are known viruses infecting all kinds of executables of standard DOS: batch command files (BAT), loadable drivers (SYS, including special purpose files IO.SYS and MS- DOS.SYS) and binary executables (EXE, COM). There are also viruses targeting executables of other operating systems - Windows 3.x, Windows95/NT, OS/2, Macintosh, Unix, including the VxD drivers of Windows 3.x and Windows95.

Macro viruses: Macros are used in most word processing programs such as Microsoft Office in order to automate or simplify recurring tasks in documents. Macro viruses are those viruses that use the application's own macro programming language to distribute themselves, in which an unwanted sequence of actions is performed automatically when the application is started or something else triggers it. These macro viruses may inflict damage to the document or to other computer software but are relatively harmless, and are often spread as an e-mail virus.

Boot Viruses: These were one of the most common viruses prevalent during the early and mid 1990s, when the use of diskettes was popular. These viruses infect or substitute their own code for either the DOS boot sector or the Master Boot Record (MBR), which controls the boot sequence of the PC. The MBR is executed every time a computer is booted so the virus will also be loaded into memory on every startup and spreads to every disk that the system reads. They are typically very difficult to remove, and most antivirus programs cannot clean the MBR while Windows is running. So, bootable antivirus disks are needed to fix boot sector viruses.

Script viruses: They are a division of file viruses, written in a variety of script languages such as VBS, JavaScript, BAT, PHP, HTML etc. They can form a part of multi-component viruses or infect other scripts such as Windows or Linux command and service files. If the file format, such as HTML, allows the execution of scripts, they can infect it.

http://antivirus-hq.com/ Antivirus HQ: your online resource to help protect your PC from viruses and spyware.

[tags]virus, computer, software, viruses, spyware, adware[/tags]

Virus Removal Software And Information

I hate viruses, and so does everyone else who has ever gotten them or will get one. Since 2006, 1 billion people have the internet, which means that there are now more viruses then ever.

Viruses come in many forms and with many different problems attached to each kind. Some viruses are designed to mess up your entire computer and destroy all data; others are made just to show you unwanted advertisements every once in awhile. Either way, they shouldn't be on your computer and can be removed by you manually or by virus removal software. First though, let's discuss the most common types of computer viruses and what they can do to you or your computer.

The most known and damaging virus type that exists right now is the worm virus. This type of virus can duplicate itself and it will use the email addresses from your address book, and send itself to those people. This means your friends and family computers could even become infected with this virus.

The next most dangerous type of virus is the Trojan virus, which is a sneaky one, hence the name. Trojan viruses sneak in by disguising itself as a program that provides a legitimate function. But really it is a virus that will damage your computer or steal personal information like passwords. There is also the backdoor Trojan virus, which if your computer was infected with it, someone could take control of your computer through your network or the internet.

Another more common virus is just a plain old fashioned file virus. File viruses can attach to real software, so that whenever you use the software, it will load into your memory and infect other files that are associated with that program. That means that the most important documents and data could be destroyed by one simple click!

The next type of viruses I will discuss is the most common on all computers today, and that is Adware and Spyware. Adware is basically just advertisements that are saved on your computer, and show them selves sometimes in a random pop-up or when you type in a web address that is incorrect. Spyware is actually the worst of the two because spyware can log your every keystroke, record every website you go to, and report your statistics back to an individual or company.

Those are really the main types of viruses that exist and are most common on the internet today. Using that knowledge in conjunction with virus removal software, you will be allowed to make sure every virus is removed and not still lingering around somewhere waiting to come out again.

Before I end this article, I would like to give you some very important tips that everyone should know, taken first hand from my computer experiences over the past 10 years.

The most important tip has to do with a computer crash from a virus. Bad people make bad viruses, and those very bad viruses will do things like deleting all of your data, destroying your operating system and maybe even actually altering you're BIOS. Your BIOS controls a lot of technical details on your computer, like your CPU's exact speed, system temperature and most of your components.

This is what you need to do to ensure you can recover from a virus like that. First off make a clone copy of your hard drives data every week, backup your BIOS once every time you change it or a part on your computer. By doing these steps, which actually take very little time with the right tools, you will be protected against bad viruses that destroy that information. All you have to do is restore the BIOS and fully restore your hard drive from the clone image you have, and your computer will be back to normal.

That is all of my information on viruses, and my biggest tip is, if you really want to protect yourself against viruses you need to get virus protection software.

Copyright 2006 Michael Cottier

If you want to know more about viruses and purchase virus removal software, then check out Michael's page at http://www.computer-customizing-guide.com/virus-removal-software.html Also, learn more about computer customizing at his website http://www.computer-customizing-guide.com/

[tags]virus removal software, removing viruses, viruses[/tags]

Remove Blackworm

Blackworm started on the 3rd of February and has been programmed to attack an infected computer on the 3rd of every month thereafter. So far it has been estimated that over 300,000 computers have been infected. It can also disable the keyboard and mouse of infected computers. Some Internet users have already lost important files after becoming infected by the Blackworm mainly because the clock time on their computer was wrong.

Like many Internet worms, Blackworm attempts to spread by mailing itself to contacts in a user's address book. The e-mails containing the worm can have a wide variety of Subject fields and attachment names. The worm also tries to add itself to the auto-start programs in the Windows registy. Once a computer in a network has been infected, Blackworm will try to infect all other systems in the network.

To prevent getting infected by Blackworm you shouldn't open attachments or click on Web links within these e-mails, especially if these e-mails have a porn-related subject line. You should also backup any important files that you would like to preserve. Most antivirus products will detect Blackworm assuming the worm hasn't disabled the antivirus software. It is also recommended to scan your computer for viruses and use a firewall.

About the Author: Edward is the owner of http://www.thespywareterminator.com where you can download the highest rated spyware remover for 2005. This superior software removes many unwanted Internet parasites such as viruses, trojans, popups, adware and spyware. It has been downloaded over 35 million times by people in over 100 countries. It really works!

[tags]remove blackworm,blackworm,blackworm virus,get rid of blackworm[/tags]

How To Protect Yourself From Viruses, Spyware, Adware, And Other Nuisances

Spyware/adware is a new major concern for PC users everywhere. Infecting your computer silently (usually installed with programs that seem harmless), spyware and adware can collect personal information about you, as well as cause pop up ads to come up all of the time, changing your browsers home page, sometimes even completely disabling your computer's usability.

This article will show you how to protect yourself against harmful spyware / adware, as well as how to remove current infections, and how to protect yourself from viruses, hackers and other general "malware".

The first thing you can do, if you're an Internet Explorer user, is consider making a switch to the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Firefox can do everything that Internet Explorer can do, and much, much more. Plus it is almost completely spyware "proof", and is much more stable and secure than Internet Explorer. You can go to getfirefox.com for more information.

Next, you'll want to keep your computer up-to-date. To do so, you'll want to download all available updates from windowsupdate.microsoft.com (if you use Firefox, you will need to fire up IE to do this since Microsoft doesn't like people to use other browsers, so they have "banned" Firefox from accessing Windows updates).

Now that you've got a secure browser and have Windows up to date, it's time to talk about the anti-spyware software. The following is a list of the top three players in the free anti-spyware software game:

Spybot Search & Destroy
Download from: safer-networking.org
If you're only going to download one program, get this. Spybot is known as the king of spyware removal – and is completely free, ran buy a guy who volunteers his free time to keeping Spybot up to date.

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware
Download from: lavasoftusa.com
Ad-Aware is technically a for-profit program, but they have a freeware version of their paid software, which is just as good, in my opinion. It picks up a few things that Spybot misses, so it's good to run both.

Microsoft's Newly Released Anti-Spyware
Downlaod from: microsoft.com
Not a must-have if you have the above two programs, but it actually is a pretty good program, especially considering it's a Microsoft product. Might as well have it around to pick up anything the other two might have missed.

Take all of the programs that you have chosen to use, download, and install them. Then, one at a time, update each program, run them, and remove anything that they found. This should effectively remove any active spyware or adware on your system.

Now that you have spyware removed, you'll need hacker and virus protection. To keep hackers out, you will need to install a solid firewall. You can either use the old built in with Windows XP, or download a third-party one.

To activate Windows XP's built in firewall, follow these easy steps:

Click the Start button, and open up the Control Panel.

Open "Network Connections" (or "Network and Internet Connections", then "Network Connections" if you're using the category view).

If you're using broadband, or another form of connection through a LAN, right click on Local Area Connection (or the appropriate network connection), and select Properties. Click on the advanced tab, and click on Settings. Select "On", and don't select "Don't allow exceptions". Click OK on all windows to close.

If you would like to download a third-party firewall, Kerio Technologies has a great personal firewall that you can use. It can be found at kerio.com/kpf_home.html.

Grisoft offers a great freeware antivirus program called AVG Free. It is a great alternative to the common commercial antivirus software designed to milk you for more cash with their "update subscription" fees. Updates to AVG are 100% free, forever. AVG can be downloaded from grisoft.com.

To keep your system completely secure, be sure to scan for viruses, spyware and check for Windows updates every week or so. By taking these simple steps, your computer is now many times more secure and less likely to leak out personal information or get a malware infection.

Ryan Bauer is a computer geek who writes tutorials for his computer optimization website and runs a computer optimization and support forum.

[tags]spyware,adware,optimization,computer,viruses,hackers,firewall,antivirus,pc,internet,security[/tags]

Virus Scanning Or Virus Avoidance

I have had to fix hundreds of computers over the past several years and most of them could have been easily avoided by using antivirus software and making sure everything was up to date. This is not hard to do you just need to learn to make it a part of your routine.

Best Antivirus Software

Viruses are little executable programs that run on your computer, normally without you knowing and can cause an immense amount of damage to so little that you don't even notice. The best way to guard yourself is to not go on the internet, or even better don't own a computer. If that isn't a viable option for you then you are going to need a virus scanner. Most people are going to suggest Norton or McAfee but I have found these to be lacking. I have found in many instances that AVG virus scanner actually will detect more viruses than Norton will. AVG is completely free and can be found by searching through Google. Make sure you update your virus definitions on a regular basis, a minimum of once a week, I suggest every morning. This will ensure that you have the latest up to date virus list so that you are protected and also if you have one of those viruses you can clean and remove it.

Email a Virus Without Even Knowing

Next watch out for email attachments. If you do not know the person who sent the email, don't open it. Most new viruses spread by extracting your email address from other computers and sending you an email with the virus as an attachment.

Downloads From Sites

Some web sites request that you download an ActiveX DLL or Java Applet or some other piece of software in order to use a certain function on their web site. You need to be careful when deciding whether to download it or not. There are a few rules I follow to make sure that I don't download something I should. If you are on an adult site do not download anything unless you absolutely have to. Make sure that the site/company has a good reputation; this can normally be done by searching Google.

Downloading From P2P

If you are downloading from a peer-to-peer program like Kazaa, Bearshare, WinMX or any other P2P program you are at your own risk. Most computers that I've seen that have this software on it end up having plenty of viruses and spyware. Now, this is not due to the P2P software itself but is due to the files that you are downloading through it. If you must have a P2P program, please make sure that your virus definitions are up to date at all times.

Don't Rely On Automatic Update

On of the worse things you can do is to rely on the automatic update that come with the antivirus that you have. This will normally not send you an update notification until a few days after there is an update that you can get. Any antivirus software that I've seen allows you to manually download any updates that are available.

When Should I Scan My Computer

I leave my computer running 24/7 and if you do the same I would suggest scheduling a time somewhere around 2:00am. This allows the scan to run when no one is on it and will catch anything might have gotten by the automatic scan for one reason or another. If you turn your computer off at night, I suggest a scan right when you turn it on for the first time that day.

Conclusion

You will probably still get a virus from time to time but it should be a lot less frequent and will normally be something minor that you will get. Also if you need up getting a virus it will normally be caught within 24 hours which will reduce the amount of destruction that it can cause your computer and to others.

I am an all around big Geek with too much time on my hands. My main services are web design/development and PC repair. I've been doing both of these for the past 5 years and consider myself pretty good at what I do but, more importnantly, I love it. Webcyte Design

[tags]virus, virses, anti-virus, antivirus, virus scan, virus clean, virus scanner[/tags]

New Mass Mailing Spamming Internet Trojan For The Windows Platform

May. 16th 2005 - MicroWorld has reported the discovery of Troj/Sober-Q, which is a mass mailing spamming internet Trojan for the Windows platform.

Some of the spam emails sent by this Trojan takes to respectable German news outlets, such as Spiegel etc., as reported by MicroWorld, which contain articles on:

1. "Necessasity of Health Reforms";

2. "asylum seekers receive first class private supply while medical supply for Germans abolished";

3. "Dentists- enormous content increases expense of the contribution payers" etc.

It affects Windows operating system and is also know by aliases such as Email-Worm.Win32.Sober.q and W32/Sober.q@MM

In order to protect yourself from this worm ensure that you have the very latest update of the eScan/MailScan software. MicroWorld provides Hourly Updates to its customer.

For further information on detection and removal of "Troj/Sober-Q" please visit the below mentioned link.

http://www.mwti.net/virusnews/virusalertd.asp?id=610

Download the free MicroWorld Anti Virus Toolkit that detects viruses in system registry and running processes

Link 1 --- ftp://ftp.microworldsystems.com/download/tools/mwav.exe
Link 2 --- ftp://update.mailscan.info/download/tools/mwav.exe

For more information please write to manish@mwti.net

For technical support please mail to support@mwti.net

MicroWorld (http://www.mwti.net) is the publisher of world's first real time antivirus and content security software eScan and MailScan, for desktops, file servers, citrix servers, proxy servers and Mail Servers. Working on revolutionary MicroWorld Winsock Layer(MWL) technology, MicroWorld's time tested and reliable products have seen bestowed with certificates and awards by some of the most prestigious testing bodies like Virus Bulletin, Checkmark, TUCOWS, and Advanced CheckVir, Red Hat Ready, Novell Ready etc.

MicroWorld Technologies is one of the leading solution providers for Information Technology, Content Security and Communications Software. MicroWorld's Revolutionary "MicroWorld-WinSock-Layer (MWL)" technology, the first of its kind in the world. It deals with these threats before they enter your network, in the same way that a firewall controls user access.

[tags]virus alert, virus news, internet security, e-mail spamming, trojan, worm,[/tags]