Spyware - a pain!

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 6:27 am

Gator says that it is there for your "convenience"; it stores passwords and credit card numbers, but also triggers pop-up ads and monitors your internet surfing activities and then returns that activity to its sponsors so they can "customise" your ads.

We have a lot of people here at work who've downloaded Gator and while it isn't in and of itself harmful, its presences seems to be very invasive and hides parts of itself all over your hard drive. Gator is something that you have to download, but it's often bundled in with other software and you don't know that you've got it until its installed itself on the machine.

Here's on article from Cnet.com that talks a bit about Gator and other adware.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 7:48 am

Cheers HLD, i have been trying to convince my boss that Gator crashes his machine...hopefully that article will prove me right

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 10:12 am

I hate all that crap that installs itself when you're not looking. I'm not sure that it is the root cause of system instability, but it surely can't help; I believe that every program that is running is a chance for your system to freeze, and that if you minimalise the number of programs running (like the RealPlayer tray icon, Gator, etc.) you'll greatly reduce the number of system stability problems that occur. Plus, there's the part of me that hates adware and other things that monitor my internet surfing, buying tendencies and password & credit card number information (it's not quite paranoia, but I'd just assume that private information stayed private--and I don't trust any internet privacy policy).

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 8:05 pm

Well I know for a fact that I didn't download Gator, I never use a credit card over the internet for the sole purpose in which it can be easily retrieved by anyone anywhere.

I do have younger brothers who seem to enjoy Internet chatting and downloading the programs associated with it. Still it reminds me of Bonzai Buddy, that annoying purple ape who insisted on being part of my desktop. Well I agree about many of these programs being the cause to the instability of Windows, at least its gone for now.

Weasel · Post by **Weasel** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 8:40 pm

Originally posted by Tamerlane
Well I know for a fact that I didn't download Gator,

I had the screen lockup with the Gator ad and it was transfered to my temp files...the only buttons I pushed was Ctrl Alt Del..still got downloaded.

Bonzai Buddy...I believe is where my problems started with my computer..In April it got in my computer, and I finally just deleted any file or program with any connection to it. Over time my resources kept being drawed away...until it got where nothing would run over 5 minutes.

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Thu Jul 04, 2002 12:18 am

I hate all that crap that installs itself when you're not looking. I'm not sure that it is the root cause of system instability, but it surely can't help; I believe that every program that is running is a chance for your system to freeze, and that if you minimalise the number of programs running (like the RealPlayer tray icon, Gator, etc.) you'll greatly reduce the number of system stability problems that occur. Plus, there's the part of me that hates adware and other things that monitor my internet surfing, buying tendencies and password & credit card number information (it's not quite paranoia, but I'd just assume that private information stayed private--and I don't trust any internet privacy policy).

I second. You are just do damn right!!

The only way I've found so far to keep all this things outside my pc was Cookie Pal by setting it to not accept cookies from sites found by Ad-aware; but in the end I resulted with a long, long list..

Cheers

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Thu Jul 04, 2002 9:19 am

Originally posted by Tamerlane
I never use a credit card over the internet for the sole purpose in which it can be easily retrieved by anyone anywhere.

Do you use your credit card at The Gap? Or how about at a restaurant? Or what about over the phone with L.L. Bean?

Online credit card use is actually more secure for an individual transaction than any of those methods because they use 128-bit encryption and most retailers only have phone lines with no encryption or security measures. If someone wanted to hack credit card numbers, it is far easier to run a scam on AOL pretending to be Billing and getting credit card numbers from gullible members or hack a phone line at a store.

The real danger of having credit card numbers stolen is either through a downloading a trojan horse virus that sends your information out or having someone hack a "secure" server that stores your personal data and credit card information. Still, companies which you may not have conducted internet commerce with, but whom you have dealt with in the past, probably store your credit card number on a server that is accessible if a hacker is resourceful enough, so just because you don't give out your credit card number via the internet doesn't necessarily mean that it's secure.

Another danger is a clerk or tech who "palms" credit card numbers, and this can happen not only with internet transactions, but the waitress at Applebee's or the sales guy at Circuit City can steal your credit card number. I've had this happen to me at least twice, but it doesn't stop me from conducting commerce on sites and with companies I feel are reasonably smart and proactive in their security.

The bottom line is that there is no such thing as 100% secure. There never has been, and there never will be. As long as someone is willing to throw enough time, energy and money at hacking a database, writing malicious virus code or scamming unsuspecting consumers, they will be able to get away with fraud. What you, as a consumer, can do is to make sure that you deal only with companies that you trust, that you make sure that all of your internet transactions are conducted via secure protocols and that you're willing to sacrifice a little bit of convenience for the extra security.

When I was teaching self-defense classes some years ago, I used to tell people, "You don't have to be the fastest antelope in the herd; just don't be the slowest." As long as you make it as hard as possible for people to steal your identity, then hackers will prey upon those who are more careless than you because they're just like the rest of us and want to do as little amout of work as possible.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jul 04, 2002 11:04 am

Originally posted by Aubrey
I had downloaded WebWasher once, but there was a conflict problem with Explorer and sometimes I couldn't open some web pages... Perhaps it was my fault or, perhaps it was Explorer's fault... I don't know.

Webwasher does halt some IE windows from loading, because the scripting looks to it like a popup. Easy way to deal with this is to click on the Webwasher icon in your system tray. It'll get a red X over it, meaning that visual Webwasher functions are disabled. (It will still prevent cookies, referrers, etc. Those controls are available from a screen within the program.) Then you can load anything you wish.

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Thu Jul 04, 2002 2:03 pm

Thanks, Fable. I'll check it out. Hope this time it work right.

Cheers

KidD01 · Post by **KidD01** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 9:18 am

Originally posted by Weasel
Bonzai Buddy...I believe is where my problems started with my computer..In April it got in my computer, and I finally just deleted any file or program with any connection to it. Over time my resources kept being drawed away...until it got where nothing would run over 5 minutes.

It's Bonzy Buddy, the one with purple penquin icon. Those progs usually got installed even you have checked that you don't want to install it.

Same happen with OnFlow

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 8:20 pm

Do you guys know of any other dedicated pop-up killers? I've downloaded Ad-Aware to clean out spyware and adware but I'm looking for something to kill pop-up ads or at least give me the option of the browser opening up a new window.

KidD01 · Post by **KidD01** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 12:38 am

@HLD : Have you tried Pop Up stopper ?

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 6:00 am

Do you have a URL where I can download it?

KidD01 · Post by **KidD01** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 12:04 pm

Here are some list of prog provided by C-Net to download :
http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html? ... ch=+Go%21+

I hope that helps