OT: Spyware
 

Ok I have a user at work that has a ton of popups. I download and have him run Firefox now as a browser which stops the popups while he browses, but now he gets them when just sitting there with no browsers open. I have ran Ad-aware a few times and cleaned it all up but the popups continue. The first scan had 500+ items and then the scans after that had 10 or so but now it is showing nothing. Said user will be working in Autocad or some other program and not even have anything open related to the internet and the popups will roll in. Do any of you guys here have any suggestions on what I could do to stop this, short of a complete wipe of the HD and fresh start?

Re: OT: Spyware
 

I had one of these hit me today, despite running adaware and anti virus.

Turned out a vbs script had gotten itself into my startmenu>startup folder. No idea how, but I deleted it easily enough. I also had to kill a process called "SCRIPT" or something and I seem to be fine now, without even rebooting.

I've also noticed that my google browser bar is starting to let some popups through- it seems the spammers have taken the lead in the permanent struggle between popups and blockers. No update from google to counter it yet=-(

Re: OT: Spyware
 

I recommend Spybot Search and Destroy, it picks up a lot of junk that Adaware won't.

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=home

Re: OT: Spyware
 

Sometimes it's because something installed a toolbar in your IE that's letting the idiot things through.

If that's the case, go to
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htm

Be careful of what you remove, and you should be fine. But do be sure you're not removing anything essential. When in doubt, ask http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Abd.

Re: OT: Spyware
 

I have Spyboy S&D I just hadn't run it yet. I guess I had forgot about it. But thanks for the tip RD.

I went through and found a whole slew of folders in Program Files that were junk and then I went through add and remove programs and there were a ton of stuff dealing with babes in bikinis and so forth that the user had not installed. I removed those and some of the search bars that were in IE are now gone. Hopefull that solves the problem or at least makes it more tolerable.

Abdiel - I will run that program to see what else I may have missed and see if that does the trick.

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

Re: OT: Spyware
 

My sister had this problem a few days ago with popups that weren't related to IE. It took me 5 hours of constant scanning with Adaware And Spybot S&D plus scanning with a AVG 6.0 to get rid of the dam things.

I'm pretty sure you've checked for Viruses, we had some Trojans on that computer that might have had something to do with it. Either way it's fixed now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Good Luck sorting it out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT: Spyware
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I have to agree.

Re: OT: Spyware
 

Some are alittle harder to remove. Even spyware and adaware can fall short. They require a seperate program to search and destroy them.

By any chance, if the person googles a search... does the first 4 or 5 results try to force them to search again at a site called 2020?

Re: OT: Spyware
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not in our case, no it does not.
But I have seen it happen before.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">In our network we have it constantly scanning for viruses so this is not a problem. If there is a virus it does not Last for more then a couple hours. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ June 29, 2004, 14:25: Message edited by: Ragnarok ]

Re: OT: Spyware
 

Turn off the messenger service. How you do it depends on the domain model (or lack there of) If you are running ADDS, then you can do it with Group Policy. If its a workgroup, then just set it to manual start in the services snap in.

[ June 29, 2004, 14:25: Message edited by: Thermodyne ]

Re: OT: Spyware
 

SpubLaster is also a damn fine piece of programming.
It prevents filth like spyware, popups and the like to install in the first place.

SpybLaster 3.1

Re: OT: Spyware
 

about the hijacking of browers, search the net for "hijack this". Its a tool to clean browsers of hostile plugins

Re: OT: Spyware
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Already had that one as well. But the homepage is not being hijacked. Only thing on the browsers is under the address bar there were, at one time, 4 or 5 different search bars installed. But now I have removed those.

These are some fine tips and I'm sure they will help others in the future, so keep them coming. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: OT: Spyware
 

Can anyone picture a digitalised Version of ragnarok appear on screen like rambo armed with all the different spyware destroying programs we've recommended... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT: Spyware
 

It must be something like the worm from Worms 1. You know the one that fell over because of his heavy weapon loadout. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT: Spyware
 

You haven't lived till you've seen "Mullet Time" cut scene from Worms 3D http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT: Spyware
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">*Says in deepest voice possible while holding all spyware destroying tools* DIE EVIL SPYWORM THINGY, DIE!

Re: OT: Spyware
 

At work, I've helped to develop a checklist of things to go through for spyware/virus infected systems. Since most of the time it's bad enough to call into the helpdesk because work can't get done, the list is *very* comprehensive:

1) Run Windows Update.
2) Clean out Symantec AV Quarantine, Backed Up Items, and Repaired Items. Empty Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, and Cookies. Empty Deleted Items folders in MS Outlook.
3) Run full SAV scan (check that client is on managed server, and definitions are up-to-date). Auto-clean, then use the manual removal instructions for each virus to ensure proper removal.
4) Use TrendMicro's Housecall Online virus scan, set for auto-clean. Follow manual removal instructions for any viruses found to ensure removal.
5) Run both SpyBot S&D (scan & immunize), and AdAware (scan).
6) Install and run Vision, to monitor computer's network traffic.
7) Run full SAV scan again.

A bit extreme, and at least a half-day affair (longer for the end-Users that have insane numbers of files, like 400,000). But so far it has cleaned up all the nasty infestations we've had. If the system doesn't have any data that needs to be saved though, usually it's just re-imaged and we forget about it.

Re: OT: Spyware
 

Not all anti-spyware is what it seems:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Re: OT: Spyware
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thta's true. When you go to download.com, and read the comments, you'll see people ripping apart the various new spyware removal programs, that use ad sponsering.

People are even critial of Adaware and Spybot, but their comments are noticibly less credible. I like to run Adaware first, then Spybot.

I really like Spybot 1.3, because it wil purge all sorts of crap from the hard disk, like the previously acessed files in Windows Media player, which is nice. The latest Version has never removed something critical -- for me anyway, YMMV.

There was this real evil group that was spamming newsGroups, email, and using Windows Messager to promote it's spyware removal tool, can't recall who that was.

[ June 29, 2004, 21:52: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: OT: Spyware
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Don't get me started on this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif It's been plaguing my computer for days until i got it sorted