Do I Have Spyware?

A little bit of prevention can save you hours of nightmarish work trying to recover from a spyware disaster. Spyware can reek total havok on your computer! Please take the following steps to protect your computer. (All of the following applies to Windows computers only).

1) Download the following programs:

Ad-Aware Scans for spy-ware and removes it. There is a good tutorial on how to use Ad-Aware at the following site: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/tutorial48.html

Spybot Search and Destroy Scans for spy-ware and removes it. There is a good tutorial on how to use Spybot S&D at: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/tutorial43.html

S pywareBlaster Prevents spy-ware from getting on computer in the first place. Remember to update it each week.
 

CWShredder Removes one common form of spy-ware called CoolWebSearch. CoolWebSearch is vicious, constantly evolving, and often CWShredder is the only tool that can get rid of it.
 

Once you have downloaded these programs, update them and then run their scans (for SpywareBlaster enable its protection). After that, make sure to keep them updated and run scans weekly. If on the first scan they find infections (called "objects" in Ad-Aware, called "problems" in Spybot S&D) then by all means delete what is found and then run a second scan to make sure they didn't come back. Sometimes you will have to restart your computer to get rid of certain threats. If after multiple scans with Ad-Aware, CWShredder, and Spybot S&D (make sure they're updated!) you can't get rid of everything, you may need to use the more advanced methods found at the bottom of this article. Or, you can have a computer technician fix your computer. (Note: Spybot will always find 5 DSO exploits. This is just a harmless bug in Spybot.)

 

2) Activate Immunization, TeaTimer, and SDHelper in Spybot Search and Destroy

Hopefully, Ad-Aware is now finding 0 objects and Spybot is only finding the 5 DSO exploits. Good job! Your computer now is probably pretty clean of spy-ware. Now we need to take steps to keep it that way. Open up Spybot. Click on Immunize on the left side of the window. Check for bad products, then click the green cross that says immunize. It should say "All known bad products are already blocked" and have a big green checkmark. Make sure "Enable permanent blocking of bad addresses in Internet Explorer" is checked too. You'll have to remember to update your immunization weekly.

Now open the Mode menu and change to Advanced Mode. On the left-hand side of the window, click on the gray box labeled Tools. Click on Resident, which is the third item under the Tools box. Check both boxes: Resident "SDHelper" and Resident "TeaTimer". Now Spybot will actively prevent any spy-ware from messing up your computer. Whenever a setting change that might be spy-ware-related, a window will pop up saying Spybot "detected an important registry entry that has been changed". You then read the window to see what's trying to change what and have the choice of allowing the change or denying it.

Alternatively, if you do not like the Spybot Resident tools, you can use SpywareGuard, which protects you in a similar way. Download SpywareGuard here.

 

3) Use an Alternative B rowser

Most people use Internet Explorer to browse web pages. By not using Internet Explorer, you can increase your security significantly. Visionary recommends the Firefox browser. You may occasionally come across a web site not totally compatible with Firefox. When visiting those web sites, you'll need to use Internet Explorer.

Firefox: Download from http://www.mozilla.org
 

 

4) Lock down Internet Explorer

Even though you're not going to be using Internet Explorer regularly any more, it still is a security vulnerability, because of its tight integration with Windows.

From the Control Panel, open Internet Options. Click on the Security tab. Click the globe labeled Internet. Press the Default Level button, then click Apply. Now press the Custom Level button. In the Active X section, set the first two options, (Download signed and unsigned Active X controls) to Prompt. Set "Initalize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe" to Disable.

Or, alternatively, you can just set the security level to High. This will make you more secure, but will frequently cause web pages to not display correctly and be missing features. Of course, if you're not going to any pages that require Internet Explorer, then you're using Firefox anyway and this won't be a big deal.

 

5) Be Careful and Smart

Use the following tips:

• Never click on a pop-up advertisement. Close pop-ups using the close box in the top right corner (the "X").
   
• Never click on a link to an anti-spyware program advertised in Google ads. They may say "Ad-Aware", but they are all fake. In fact, never click on any anti-spyware advertisement.
   
• Be very careful and selective of what programs you download.
• Don't download things if you're not sure what they do.
• Only download programs from reputable sites.
• Do not download Kazaa, Grokster, or similar programs.
• Be careful and selective of which web sites you visit. Often simply visiting a site will install spyware.

Advanced Steps

By following this advice, you should be able to avoid the great majority of spy-ware problems. If your computer is already infected, however, these steps may not be able to eliminate the spy-ware that's already there. In that case, you will have to use more advanced methods. Only do these advanced steps if you're somewhat computer literate and feel comfortable doing them. Otherwise, have a professional technician or computer repair shop fix your computer.
 

1) First, try running Ad-Aware and Spybot in Safe Mode.

2) Try manually removing anything you can. Open the Control Panel, then open Add/Remove Programs. Be very careful in here because you don’t want to remove something important. Look through the list of programs for any obvious instances of spyware. If you find any, remove them. For instance, if you’re trying to get rid of Weatherbug, none of the removal programs will get it, but you can remove it in this Add/Remove Programs list. For more help with manual removal, click here.

Then, if you still have problems, you'll have to download HijackThis and go to a spy-ware-fighting forum for further advice and help. Do NOT run HijackThis until you have read quite a bit on these spyware-fighting forums. If you delete everything HijackThis finds, you WILL break your computer and funSMS.net will not be responsible.  Below are links to some good forums. They’ll tell you how to download HijackThis and what to do afterward.

SpywareInfo	Net-Integration
Aumha	Spy-ware Warrior
CastleCops	Tech Support Guy
Cexx.org	TomCoyote

What is Spyware?

 

Answer: Spyware is a type of bad software gets onto your computer and messes it up. It's also sometimes called adware. Spyware is different than viruses. Spyware might cause one or more of the following:

-The computer slows down

-Lots of pop-up windows or random web pages opening.

-Your homepage changes to an unfamiliar page and you can't change it back.

-New icons appear on your desktop

-Just generally strange behavior

If your computer has any of the above symptoms, it's very likely that you have spyware. Once spyware gets on your computer, it can get worse and worse, eventually making your computer almost unusable. So, it's very important to have spyware protection!

Again, a spyware program is different than a virus. If you have an anti-virus program such as Norton or McAfee, it is not protecting you from spyware. You will need anti-spyware protection as well. Do not download an anti-spyware program from a pop-up window or any advertisement. Many, many fake "anti-spyware programs" are advertised on the internet. They are malicious and will actually will install spyware on your computer.

To protect your computer from spyware, download the following reputable programs. All of these are offered free for personal use by their generous authors.

Ad-Aware Scans for spyware and removes it.

Spybot Search and Destroy Scans for spyware and removes it.

SpywareBlaster Prevents spyware from getting on computer in the first place.