Fed up wth Spyware and cyber-terrosism

I wonder who writes these malicious scripts and softwares and who stands to profit?

I wonder why we need to be watched all the time, by whom and for what reasons?

I wonder why no individual or organization has been tracked, apprehended, and charged for creating and disseminating these awful softwares.

I am reluctant to use on-line banking and tele-banking because I have very little confidence on computer and web media.

Why do we need constant surveillance?

It seems with the passage of time, I lose more and more freedom each day? What is the rationale behind this loss of freedom?

Has anyone been charged with identity-theft? Is identity theft a crime, and what is the punishment?

I am only left with a sense of wonder at the direction in which we are headed.

(I hope to generate a positive discussion by by airing my sentiments and posing these questions)

[edit on 28/12/05 by aSEEKER]

[edit on 28/12/05 by aSEEKER]

I would recommend downloading some program to help fight these spyware programs that are getting on your system. You can download, Adaware SE Personal Edition, Spybot: Search and Destory & Webroot Spy Sweeper all from Download.com. Make sure you have a firewall enabled and an up to date antivirus program. If you do not have one, go to www.free.grisoft.com to download a free program called AVG. Save you from paying the annual fees linked to other programs.

I work on a microsoft contract that deals with fighting spyware and such, so if you have any questions about what to do with any of this, just U2U me.

Thanks Chissler,

I am running Zero-Knowledge's "Freedom" privacy software with is supposed to cover Spyware, Viruses, Fierwalls, Adware, Pop-ups, and parental control.

I scan my hard-drive two or three times a day separately for Viruses, and Spyware. In the last two weeks I got 966 spywares, and 55 or so viruses. How are your averages?


On another note, what could possible be worse than being divested of one's identity.

And I think the watcher in the watch-tower doing his/her duty is more evil than the watched minding their own business.

I'd recommend ditching Windows all together, and switching to a superior operating system. Namely, GNU/Linux. You wont get any spyware or viruses, and you get a stable, secure operating system. You gain your freedoms back by using mostly "free software" (open source for others of you).

[edit on 12-28-2005 by dreamlandmafia]

On 30th Dec 2005, my machine was infiltrated by Computer Associates' Pest Control Spyware remover software without my consent or invitation. I was subsequently able to remove it. Nevertheless, I was not at all pleased as I consider that act an invasion of my privacy, and the equivalent of forced entry.

I really wish to see the perpetrators of such acts behind bars. But under whose jurisdiction does such a call for justice fall?

I was so angry a few days before. These scums just downloaded their spywares on my com(w/o permission of course) and tried to advertise me dozen of so called "anti-spyware" programs. Too bad for them cos i'm underage and don't own any credit cards! Then i installed my copy of norton internet security(which is like bought for so long and i'm too lazy and dumb to install), and guess what? It found the adwares, but failed to delete them!!! I tried manually and they are still too reluctant to go.

This is the part which things started to get real bad. 2 days passed and they still failed to knock any money off me or take any credit card numbers. And the harressment continues with more spamming of pop-ups. So yesterday i was playing an online game with my frens and i went away to watch tv for 10 mins, and one of them called me suddenly and told me to look at my screen. I was dam freeking furious when i saw it. My character was talking, hurling lots of abusive words at my frens(theres no one at home so its impossible someone else did it thru my com).

Since its apparent that they are capable of taking control of my com, i'll have to reboot it. And thanks to the reformatting, i'm having lots of problems now. Theres a thread around here about how i'm having agony to scroll down an internet page.

How despicable, these internet criminals. Its even more frustrating to think that it is not easy to actually arrest them and let them have their ways.

Spyware is in fact an epidemic. But I would have to go with the person who said to switch to a Linux based setup. I did that about 2yrs ago or so with XP on the hard drive as well for my MP3 player and some Adobe products. Other than that, it's been mostly Linux. Never looked back. As for those who have something to gain, there's plenty of things to gain, such as revenge, the act of making a computer a zombie without the user knowing to launder illegal files, and even just to make a cash profit from selling servers. Not cool, but it is out there.

I have a cousin who uses Linux...He also thinks its better then Windows (I use XP), BUT...I dont know why you people say its virus free, and no adware or spyware problems...He has problems with Linux as well, he gets spyware, adware, viruses, annoying pop-ups, just like any other OS, But he does get less of those then a windows user...and that because windows is on far far more pc's then linux is.

People just never put it into perspective.

A guys auto insurance is more then a girls is because guys are involved in more crashes then girls......The Insurance companies (just like you Linux users) fail to put it into perspective. Who drives the family car the most? When you go out with your gf who drives?

Its a simple facts that guys drive more then girls...so no crap there going to crash more then they are.

[edit on 10-1-2006 by Murcielago]

Originally posted by Murcielago
I have a cousin who uses Linux...He also thinks its better then Windows (I use XP), BUT...I dont know why you people say its virus free, and no adware or spyware problems...He has problems with Linux as well, he gets spyware, adware, viruses, annoying pop-ups, just like any other OS, But he does get less of those then a windows user...and that because windows is on far far more pc's then linux is.

Then he is obviously doing something completely wrong. Most of the viruses introduced for Linux didn't get very far, or were contained to the "laboratory" for testing. So getting one is highly unlikely. The only spyware on Linux that I think iv ever seen reported was just a few tracking cookies, easily stopped. Pop-ups are caused by the browser, if those kinda popups, and he should be using Firefox, Opera, or Konquer (or some other multitude of browsers for Linux) that have built in Pop-Up blockers. Now, if he's stupid enough to run random things as root, then anything could happen. Get him to run rm -rf / as root and see what happens.

GNU/Linux > Windows

Yeah, I have Norton, yet it seems there are 2 spy ware programs that are perstistant and fail to go away. I've been contemplating about taking my computer to a computer reapair shop, because it really annoys me. My norton anti virus catches these two everytime yet fails to get rid of them, I have tried some of the manual uninstall procedures but to no avail.

I think the more annoying problem is the spam emails that are using pure graphics so words cant be filtered out any longer.

My email scanner has to scan the image coming in to check for virus and all it ends up being is a stock tip or Viagra news. I don't know why Service Providers can't detect mass emails going out of one place.

about the identify theft thing, skimming of credit cards has been around as long as the cards have been, and there's been heaps of government initiatives to stop it, but it still goes on. crackers, spyware, and infections, etc... will always be there

I use AVG antivirus but it still lets things thru sometimes... but its good for now.

I have 18 applications aiding my security! as follows >

Ad-aware, Adawarespy, bigfix, easy cleaner, hijack this, spybot, spyware spyblaster ( i suggest you get that as it kills hundreds of weak links in explorer and mozilla etc.. , xp anti spy, Xsoftspy (really good this 1 cleans malicious pointers out of the registry ( GET IT)

Also i have a couple of other things like DCOMBOB.EXE .. which switches off DCOM.. noshare.exe which disables all netbios etc.. socket lock which closes all ports...

All my apps are free.. tho not sure about xsoftspy... maybe i found the crackd version cause my version is full... tho ive got a keygen in its folder.... so i must have found that on web and had the trial offf this site

xsoftspy

also you may want Black ice protection... it may be annoying at times but its a lot safer.. i have found the full version free with serial and update.....

if anyone needs anything ive mentiond im willing to email u it if you get stuck.

lol

[edit on 103131p://390110 by info_junkee]

Here,again, is my list of FREE LEGAL siftware to protect your computer.

Fre AVG anti-virus (I like norton better, but this is free)
AdAware SE 1.06
Spybot search and distroy 1.4
Microsoft antispyware-new downloads wors till July this year

You can try demos of the following to help with stuborn issues
Pest partol
Spy sweeper

Originally posted by Murcielago
I have a cousin who uses Linux...He also thinks its better then Windows (I use XP), BUT...I dont know why you people say its virus free, and no adware or spyware problems...He has problems with Linux as well, he gets spyware, adware, viruses, annoying pop-ups, just like any other OS, But he does get less of those then a windows user...and that because windows is on far far more pc's then linux is.

People just never put it into perspective.

A guys auto insurance is more then a girls is because guys are involved in more crashes then girls......The Insurance companies (just like you Linux users) fail to put it into perspective. Who drives the family car the most? When you go out with your gf who drives?

Its a simple facts that guys drive more then girls...so no crap there going to crash more then they are.

[edit on 10-1-2006 by Murcielago]

That's just plain wrong. I've never heard of any circulating spyware, adware or viruses for the GNU/Linux platform and I doubt that there even are some. Sure my claim my not be so convincing but just look around at big GNU/Linux forums. What some people tend to forget is that the majority of mission critical systems don't run Windows but rather *BSD, GNU/Linux, SCO UNIX and so on. And don't you think that hackers, virus-, spyware- and adware makers would target those systems primarily instead of home desktop systems? The different flavours of the Windows operating system are heavily affected because the system is so flawed that security experts wouldn't even know where to begin with to tell the shocking long story. What's even worse is that Microsoft's operating systems are closed source which means that only they can fixed their flaws which often take redicilous long time. I remember that there have been flaws discovered during the last summer which were fixed this winter.
There have been improvements specially with Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2 but the road to acceptable security is far from close. I've become pretty good at keeping Windows installations clean and fast by using apps like Microsoft antispyware, Tuneup utilities pro, Nod32 and a hardware firewall but It's a process that I find unnessecary, rediculous and annoying for an operating system. The risk of a virus, spyware, adware and so on will always be there and It's sufficient that your antivirus app or your software firewall craps out to get infected. Like a smart guy once said said; using an antivirus, firewall and an antispyware app on a Windows system is like putting guards in front of a big hole.

Originally posted by dreamlandmafia
Get him to run rm -rf / as root and see what happens.

That was not nice . But I agree that GNU/Linux is superiour and for those who are interested I would recommend trying out Ubuntu or of you want more of a challenge Gentoo.

[edit on 2006-1-21 by bracke]

Originally posted by bracke

Originally posted by Murcielago
I have a cousin who uses Linux...He also thinks its better then Windows (I use XP), BUT...I dont know why you people say its virus free, and no adware or spyware problems...He has problems with Linux as well, he gets spyware, adware, viruses, annoying pop-ups, just like any other OS, But he does get less of those then a windows user...and that because windows is on far far more pc's then linux is.

People just never put it into perspective.

A guys auto insurance is more then a girls is because guys are involved in more crashes then girls......The Insurance companies (just like you Linux users) fail to put it into perspective. Who drives the family car the most? When you go out with your gf who drives?

Its a simple facts that guys drive more then girls...so no crap there going to crash more then they are.

[edit on 10-1-2006 by Murcielago]

That's just plain wrong. I've never heard of any circulating spyware, adware or viruses for the GNU/Linux platform and I doubt that there even are some. Sure my claim my not be so convincing but just look around at big GNU/Linux forums. What some people tend to forget is that the majority of mission critical systems don't run Windows but rather *BSD, GNU/Linux, SCO UNIX and so on. And don't you think that hackers, virus-, spyware- and adware makers would target those systems primarily instead of home desktop systems? The different flavours of the Windows operating system are heavily affected because the system is so flawed that security experts wouldn't even know where to begin with to tell the shocking long story. What's even worse is that Microsoft's operating systems are closed source which means that only they can fixed their flaws which often take redicilous long time. I remember that there have been flaws discovered during the last summer which were fixed this winter.
There have been improvements specially with Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2 but the road to acceptable security is far from close. I've become pretty good at keeping Windows installations clean and fast by using apps like Microsoft antispyware, Tuneup utilities pro, Nod32 and a hardware firewall but It's a process that I find unnessecary, rediculous and annoying for an operating system. The risk of a virus, spyware, adware and so on will always be there and It's sufficient that your antivirus app or your software firewall craps out to get infected. Like a smart guy once said said; using an antivirus, firewall and an antispyware app on a Windows system is like putting guards in front of a big hole.

Originally posted by dreamlandmafia
Get him to run rm -rf / as root and see what happens.

That was not nice

. But I agree that GNU/Linux is superiour and for those who are interested I would recommend trying out Ubuntu or of you want more of a challenge Gentoo.

[edit on 2006-1-21 by bracke]

i agree...linux is far more superior than windows. gentoo is a nice distro but i wouldnt recomend it to a newcomer, ive heard nice things about ubuntu. i first started out with suse, now i use vector and slackware all the way

Originally posted by bracke

Originally posted by dreamlandmafia
Get him to run rm -rf / as root and see what happens.

That was not nice

. But I agree that GNU/Linux is superiour and for those who are interested I would recommend trying out Ubuntu or of you want more of a challenge Gentoo.

Just a little joke. I think most people with half a brain that have used GNU/Linux would know not to do that.

I use Gentoo 24/7, its really quite nice. I really like portage and how it updates the packages on your system, gets new ones, etc. After installation (got it the 2nd time) it was pretty easy to maintain and keep the way i like it.

i agree..gentoo is real nice once its up and running but the install process will test your patience lol. i did the stage 1 install once which was kinda painful considering i had jus 1 pc at the time