Spyware: best solution to the actual problem?

None of the above. Go after the popup ADVERTISING companies that distribute spyware through the ads. I knew someone that used an advertising company for a while without realizing that one of the sites that had ads with that company were giving off spyware in the popups. When he found out, he quickly dissolved his relationship with the ad company. If the companies that create the spyware can't distribute it though the popup ad companies, its a MUCH smaller problem.

In a nutshell:
- Go after the ad companies, that may host ads for the spyware authors, first.
- That should reduce the majority of the spyware out there. After that, go after individual companies and people that create it.
- DON'T go after people who have spyware on their sites due to popup advertising. A lot of the time, they won't even realize that their popup company is distributing spyware (until they see their CPMs go from a buck and a quarter to six bucks).

There's a much bigger problem here, though, and it has to do with why the spyware works in the first place. MS is finally getting it right - the new MS Spyware software (currently in beta) is pretty sweet, and I'll probably end up using that eventually rather than the zillion tools that are out there. Microsoft realizes that they should bear some responsibility for the spyware (you don't see it on Macs and Linux for a reason...) and they're doing the right thing by giving the anti-spyware software away for free.

 

As an aside, I would never use an ad company whose members used spyware, but that's just me. Its kind of hard to argue with making at least 5 times more on spyware ads than regular ads...

 

This is a very serious problem and it's wasting millions of Americans' money. I've fixed several computers in past and 85% of the times it seemed to be Spyware related. It makes me sad that alot of these people who don't even know what a Modem is, take their computers to get serviced and get charged $80 for something that Spyware caused. Unfortunantly, I dont see it disappearing anytime soon; the Internet is in its prehistoric age in respect to regulation and monitoring. Every person or company does whatever they want without the worry of ever getting caught and those times they do get caught its only about 3% of the problem. There's nobody on the internet enforcing laws and the consumer seems to always be stuck with the job of reporting and enforcing.

It's a mess.

 

Another Spyware article on Slashdot today:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/18/1920244&from=rss

Spyware + Rootkit = NASTY.

 

That's exactly right...i have three units right now all but disabled by it..

Mine, from Mmans's nasty links!
G/Fs, from her son's late night porn downloads
My kids, most likely the same......

What's the best firewall? How to you clean them up? I have spybot but it doesn't get DSO Exploit............

I'd kill the s.o.b.s that now fill my business email addy with nothing but porn and drug offers! HELP!

I guess it's a good clue when they pop the Mafia boys for exploiting C. card charges, etc., I'm about ready to uncable 'em!

 

Thanks for that Mike...my g'f is pretty sharp on them and that is exactly what she suspects is wrong with hers......something embedded and hiding has avoided a full drive reformat and restore...it's hidden itself pretty well.

Trash the hard drive??

 

See the link in Randy's sig for by far the most comprehensive guide to repairing spyware problems. They're probably not beyond repair, but it make take some work to clean your systems. Follow the directions in Randy's link, and it should fix your problems.

After your systems are clean, install Firefox and you'll never go back to Internet Explorer. That's a pretty good start. Make sure you have an antivirus installed, and I would purchase Ad-Aware Pro. Also, you might want to try the new Microsoft Anti-Spyware program. It's beta right now, but when they release the final version, I'm guessing it will blow away the competition. As noted earlier in the thread, MS will be releasing it for free.

I personally use Norton AntiVirus and Ad-Aware Pro, and I schedule nightly scans. Norton updates automatically, AdAware updates when it runs. I also have Microsoft's Anti-Spyware running in the background. I use Firefox almost exclusively now.

 

Roger that...I have the Norton anti virus but not their firewall stuff.

I also have Spybot but as i said it leaves DSO exploit unresolved..

I've heard there are better browsers (Firefox) but at work I goota run what they brung me, ya know?

I'll refer the g/f to Randy's stuff, she's starting to get crabby and use bad language!....... I mean outside the bedroom!

 

Try running it in safe mode.