Spyware & Adware

[Tami]

Originally Posted On GraphixGround by Endophyte on April 18 2004

What is Spyware?

A general term for a program that surreptitiously monitors your actions. While they are sometimes sinister, like a remote control program used by a hacker, software companies have been known to use spyware to gather data about customers. The practice is generally frowned upon.

A technology that assists in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, "spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties." As such, spyware is cause for public concern about privacy on the Internet.

There are concerns that some Web sites and commercial organisations track users' online activity through the use of what is called ‘spyware'. Usually coming in the form of ‘cookies' - these enable the cookie writer to build-up information about what you do and where you go on the Web. Software is available that checks for and removes spyware.

What is Adware?

while not necessarily malware, adware is considered to go beyond the reasonable advertising that one might expect from freeware or shareware. Typically a separate program that is installed at the same time as a shareware or similar program, adware will usually continue to generate advertising even when the user is not running the origianlly desired program.

is software that may have been installed on your computer by a remote site. Many free utilities that you download from the Internet will install hidden software that sends details of the websites you visit and other information from your computer (which can include your email address) to advertisers so they can target you with popup ads and spam. See Spam, Spyware.

A program that displays banners while being run, or reports users habits or information to 3rd parties.

Free Spyware & Adware Removers
Lavasoft ~ Ad-aware
Spybot Search And Destroy
Spywareremove ~ Spy Hunter

Personally i recomend Ad-aware by Lavasoft, with its easy to use interface, i find it the best one I've tried yet <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... /smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':)\' />

[Endo]

[b][color="darkred"]Spyware and Adware informational page, as well as how to remove and spot adware and spyware on your PC.

[quote name=\'Tweaktown on Spyware and Adware\']"Today we are going to tell you about some of the best Spyware remover programs available for you to download, how to use those programs, and also how to monitor processes which are running on your computer to establish if the processes are a security risk or not. After you’re finished with this guide your PC will be free of Spyware and running the way it should without any nasty programs running in the background chewing up your computer performance and violating your privacy."[/quote]

[url="http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=713"]Spyware and Adware removal guide[/url]

Other useful links:
[url="http://www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml"]PC Hell: Spyware and Adware removal help[/url]
[url="http://www.firewallguide.com/spyware.htm"]Anti-Spyware Guide[/url]
[url="http://www.ntcompatible.com/story34677.html"]Spyware / Adware Removal Tutorial[/url]
[url="http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1458&page=1"]Begginers Guides: Spyware Protection and Removal[/url][/b][/color]

[RuffRyders]

[b]Spyware removal tools[/b]
[size=1]By Adam Baratz [/size]

[b]Introduction:[/b]
As we saw in part one of this two-part series, spyware is a rampant problem. This is clear to anyone who engages in even the slightest bit of field support. The scenario is so typical, the diagnosis is instant. A user complains about a slow computer; programs don't start as fast as they used to, pop-ups continually flood the screen – you know how to identify the problem. But the solution?

The common prescription for spyware is Ad-Aware and SpyBot. Anecdotal evidence claims this combination to be the most effective, but can that be more formally verified? In the process, we can examine some of the other programs out that are out there for ridding computers of spyware.

To be fair, most software that falls under the label of spyware does not deserve the name. Adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other undesirable nuisances are just as likely, if not more likely, to appear on one's computer. For the purposes of this article, these pieces of software will be referred to collectively as malware.
The contenders

[b]Spybot – Search & Destroy[/b]
Developer's site: [url=\"http://spybot.safer-networking.de/en/index.html\"]http://spybot.safer-networking.de/en/index.html[/url]
Cost: Free

[b]Aluria's Spyware Eliminator[/b]
Developer's site: [url=\"http://www.aluriasoftware.com/homeproducts/spyware/\"]http://www.aluriasoftware.com/homeproducts/spyware/[/url]
Cost: US$29.95

[b]Spyware Doctor[/b]
Developer's site: [url=\"http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/\"]http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/[/url]
Cost: $39.95

[b]SpySubtract PRO[/b]
Developer's site: [url=\"http://www.spysubtract.com/\"]http://www.spysubtract.com/[/url]
Cost: US$29.95

[b]Ad-Aware SE 6 Personal[/b]
Developer's site: [url=\"http://www.lavasoft.de/\"]http://www.lavasoft.de/[/url]
Cost: Free

This software will be judged on its ease of use, the amount of feedback it provides, and of course its effectiveness in removing malware. Effectiveness will be determined by how well the computer works after the removal, along with an examination of any remaining files or registry entries.
Test setup

Instead of performing these tests on a regular computer, they were conducted on a virtual machine (specifically, VMware 4.5.2-build 8848) running Windows 2000 SP4. Besides insulating the host machine from an onslaught of malware, using a VM allowed for reproducibility in the tests. A baseline image was created with all the spyware already installed. To test each tool, we refreshed the VM to that image. This allowed us to be sure that each test would be working off the exact same file system.

Since each spyware remover claims to identify hundreds of possible infestations, it would be impractical to test for each possible case. Instead, we decided to work from an abbreviated list of common culprits:

* Bonzi Buddy
* eAcceleration Software Station and Threat Scanner
* Smiley Central, with PopSwatter and MyWebSearch
* Freeze.com's "Living Rainforest"screensaver
* Weatherbug
* Kazaa
* iMesh
* Grokster

This software, along with other bits attracted in the process (malware frequently attracts other malware), delivered unsolicited pop-ups, caused Internet Explorer to crash regularly, and noticably slowed down the test system. Now we were equipped to see which of the test subjects would make the cut.
Removal Procedure

Before engaging the use of a malware remover, you should try removing the problematic software to the best of your ability. Start by clearing your browser cache and any temporary files. Many bits of malware hide out in these places. We left these places alone so we could test the scanning ability of the different malware removers, but in a production environment it's important to clean out every crevice.

Use any uninstallers available to you. All of the software we intentionally installed came with uninstallers. Some uninstallers even did a thorough job. However, not all did. Even after saying bye bye to Bonzi Buddy and his brethren, Internet Explorer wouldn't run reliably and pop-ups appeared without cause. Now was time to seek assistance from our test subjects.

[url=\"http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/spyware-removal.ars\"][Source][/url]