Computer Terminology

Over the past few months we have used AOL's Antispyware program, Spybot and Adaware to rid our personal computer of spyware. Spyware can be anything from an online store's tracking codes (which are usually pretty harmless) to an advertiser's tracking codes (again harmless but possibly irritating from time to time) to DSS Agents and Trojans which can cause your computer to do things you don't want it to do.

Our Search & Destroy missions were done on a weekly basis. September 27, 2006 our computer was scanned by Adaware, and 40 harmless tracking cookies were found.

We asked the Spyware Doctor to do its thing three days later, September 30. Knowing what we had found on the 27th, we fully expected the doctor to find those same 40 tracking codes and, perhaps, 10 or 15 more.

FIVE website hijackers (Hijackers are designed to take you to a website of their choosing rather than yours.)
FOUR Fake.Alert Trojans (Fake.Alert Trojan is a member of the ZLOB Trojan family of things you do not want on your computer. It generates popup ads, usually along the line of "Your computer is infected and shows you a website where you can clean it. Of course, the purpose is to sell you a product that maynot be any good at all.)
TWENTY-SIX Advertising Tracking Codes (See our article about Cookies.)
SIXTY-SEVEN Tracking Cookies (See our article about Cookies.)
TWO Components of Claria (Claria, also known as Gator, is one of the biggest web marketing research companies. In exchange for their free software they bundle a program called Gain AdServer which provides you with targeted pop-up advertisements based on keywords it collects from websites while you browse. Claria's eWallet and Offer companion are bundled with every installation of Claria's products.)
TWENTY-TWO Rogue Antispyware Products (Rogue and suspect anti-spyware products use deceptive and unfair practices to trick consumers into purchasing them. Methods can include not providing proven, reliable anti-spyware protection or being prone to ridiculous false positives; unfair, deceptive or high pressure sales tactics; being associated with known distributors of spyware/adware or having been known to install spyware/adware themselves.)
THIRTY-SIX Known Bad Site Cookies (Adware, Spyware and Phishing sites may use the Windows hosts file to redirect your browser to a malicious site when you try to access a valid site such as your Bank)
TWO DSS Agents (A DSSAgent might send over 10,000 DNS requests in 15 minutes, slowing network traffic. It has been reported to slow CPU processing as well.)
TWENTY-FIVE PREMIUM RATE DIALER Agents (A dialer agent is used against people who have Internet Dial-up Connections or DSL (which we don't). It's designed to use your phone to dial into a website that charges your phone bill for access.)
TWENTY I-SEARCH Toolbar References (This is a bad adware program that delivers advertising to your computer. It's bad because it uses a guardian program to prevent you from deleting it.)
FIVE Groksters (Grokster is an Adware Peer-To-Peer File Sharing program. It offers free, peer-to-peer fast and detailed searches, no incomplete/failed downloads, auto resume, fast downloads, file preview, and ability to handle all file types. In an organization, Grokster can severely degrade network performance and consume vast amounts of storage.)
NINE Trojan Downloaders (Trojan downloaders secretly contact other computers to download other spyware onto the host computer.)

I am not surprised by these results because we spend hours and hours each day working on the Internet and researching information for the many articles we write.

However, I was surprised that none of the FREE antispyware programs seemed to be too concerned with this. If you've been counting, the Spyware Doctor found 223 items on the computer it thought we might wish to delete.

It's a little scary when you get ready to delete things from your computer. The Spyware Doctor has a checkbox where you can set a system restore point. In other words, it will remember all your computer settings before you deleted anything. If yoy delete something you shouldn't, just restore back to your original settings. This is a great feature.

The Spyware Doctor also monitors your Internet connection while you're online. Yahoo, if you don't already know, is a great big advertising medium.

Computer Spyware Test October 2006

There's a new Spyware Doctor in our computer?

Online Little Rock
presents
Protecting Your Child from
Internet Predators

Computer Spyware Test October 2006

There's a new Spyware Doctor in our computer?

Online Little Rock presents Protecting Your Child from Internet Predators

Online Little Rock
presents
Protecting Your Child from
Internet Predators