Cap'n Refsmmat Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Just recently I checked my computer for spyware and found... 116 spybots!!! (and a partridge in a pear tree) Seriously, though, where do they come from? I hardly ever download anything. And, my stupid firewall claims it kills them. How can they get access to my internet without alerting it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesseract Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Id say mostly cookies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aommaster Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 The firewall just stops programs entering your computer. It cannot really stop cookies as otherwise, you will need to log on everytime you enter a site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blike Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Are cookies considered spyware? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 There are various hitlists of undesirable cookies, usually called data miners. Cap'n, a lot of spyware gets installed with programs like Bonzai Buddy, Gator, Kazaa, the new DivX installation etc. Things like browser hijackers normally are loaded to your browser via malicious javascript in dodgy web sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesseract Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Are cookies considered spyware? No but they can contain spyware, or allow spyware to enter the computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 No but they can contain spyware, or allow spyware to enter the computer. Not true. A cookie is just a plain text file that cannot run as an executable entity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesseract Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Not true. A cookie is just a plain text file that cannot run as an executable entity. I bow before the lord of cookies.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted May 23, 2004 Author Share Posted May 23, 2004 There are various hitlists of undesirable cookies' date=' usually called data miners. Cap'n, a lot of spyware gets installed with programs like Bonzai Buddy, Gator, Kazaa, the new DivX installation etc. Things like browser hijackers normally are loaded to your browser via malicious javascript in dodgy web sites.[/quote'] I saw a list of the programs, and I had only downloaded one out of all of them. But that doesn't account for the whole 116. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordan Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 My computer keeps finding some kind of spyware also. It seems to only change the homepage of my IE. When we get rid of it, IE works fine, but then it always comes back in a few hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budullewraagh Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 if you ever see GAIN, kill it. by kill, i mean torture; take the source code for everything in it and tear it to shreds, then save it to a 3.5" floppy disk and put it on your network as a warning to all spyware. always remember this: GAIN->loss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admiral_ju00 Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 My computer keeps finding some kind of spyware also. It seems to only change the homepage of my IE. When we get rid of it, IE works fine, but then it always comes back in a few hours. that would be called a Browser Hi-Jacker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radical Edward Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 My computer keeps finding some kind of spyware also. It seems to only change the homepage of my IE. When we get rid of it, IE works fine, but then it always comes back in a few hours. that sounds like coolWWW. here is a tool to get rid of it http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossoi Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Not true. A cookie is just a plain text file that cannot run as an executable entity. True, but often cookies are an integral part of spyware and server side data collection scripts. There has been a HUGE increase in the amount of spyware over the past couple of months. There are two tools which I find very useful for removing this stuff. Adaware and Hijackthis. Adaware is a user friendly hunt, warn and delete application. Hijackthis gives you a snapshot of the registry components that may be causing problems allowing you to decide what to delete (be careful though because it lists both good and bad components so deleting everything it lists WILL kill your OS). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atinymonkey Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 I have a small but adequate ninja balanced ontop of my LAN card. I find this an effective method. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 True, but often cookies are an integral part of spyware and server side data collection scripts. But they can't actively do anything on their own, nor do they contain software, which is what Tesseract was saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admiral_ju00 Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 I have a small but adequate ninja balanced ontop of my LAN card. I find this an effective method. where can i get one of those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aommaster Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Good question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossoi Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 I find that my local Bonsai Ninja superstore has a good range of various firewall/virus/spyware Ninjas to suit my needs. I believe the new Wireless Firewall Ninja is out next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesseract Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 I dont take any steps to protect my computer , my antivirus isnt even on.Nor is my firewall.It seems you people take to many steps to protect urselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 I dont take any steps to protect my computer , my antivirus isnt even on.Nor is my firewall.It seems you people take to many steps to protect urselves. Yeah, good luck with that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesseract Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Yeah, good luck with that I dont have very many problems.(more like none) I just keep careful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Yeah whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesseract Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Yeah whatever. Srioulsy I havent had a virus problem since January, I just dont get them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Apart from in January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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