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Hey all. Somehow I've become the spyware guru at my company since no one else has the foggiest clue about it and about 1/2 of the PCs are horribly infected as is. So they want me to make a presentation as to what to do about it. I'm obviously going to propose getting an anti-spyware program. The problem is there is no way they are going to spring for more than ONE program. Then again it'll be a miracle if we can get most people to run even that one program.
So I use adaware and spybot as a rule. That new spysweeper sounds interesting too. But if you had to just pick ONE which would it be? I'm so used to useing both in concert I really don't know which is better.
Afternoon,
Why not use both? Each program has it's own good points and work well. What one misses, the other will normally catch.
It sounds to me that the company is behind the times as far as protecting it's computers. They will have to invest both time and money for protection software to correct the problems and also enforce strict guidelines on computer users to prevent future problems.
Stress to the company how a small investment now will more than pay for itself over time.
just my 2 cents,
XDon
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But if you had to just pick ONE which would it be? I'm so used to useing both in concert I really don't know which is better.
There is no definitive ONE better than the other. Spybot and adaware uses different algorithms. Each finds something that the other misses. It's better to have the two complementing each other.
i_XpUser
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Ok RC, if they are going to make you a guru, it's real hard being God ... ;0)
The power of three on every computer:
SpywareBlaster, AdAware and Spybot; be sure to activate Spybot and 'Blasters ActiveX and Register protectors that prevent and d/loads & changes.Next, and this is gospel, learn HiJack This. They are going to come to you with problems that your Malware Program won't handle and will expect you to "fix" it. The only proggie that is going to do this is HT.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day;
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime;
Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish....
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if they are going to make you a guru, it's real hard being God ... ;0)
There's only ONE guru in the world that I know of - The Most High ;0)
i_XpUser
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There is one very easy solution, depending on your network.
Clean each machine one by one, using whatever programs you need to to get the job done. Then, set restrictions on each machine so that no new software can be installed without admin permission.
There shouldnt be a spyware problem from that point forward.
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You may also want to disable your Email program from receiving attachments in the form of JOKE EMAILS.
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And being God... miracles are easy to do, the impossible takes a little longer.
Go with Ranchhands power of three.
Iligitimi non carborundum est
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I am a firm advocate of "The Power of Three"
SpyBot
Ad-Aware
SpywareBlasterHowever...
I am doing clean outs far and wide every day. Most of the time, you can get by with this and do a fine job (with maybe a little after-tweaking thrown in with Hijack This).
THERE IS A PROBLEM HOWEVER:
Someone in your company will have a massive Trojan infection that will make killing all their spyware/adware look like child's play.
Wait until you come upon that. When you do I suggest TDS-3 . Works wonderfully at cutting the heads off the most annoying and stubborn trojans.
Plus, there is a whole host of nasty problems you are likely to encounter that you will need to fix, for all practical purposes, MANUALLY. At least, semi-manually, though a collection of multiple tools and a little registry sniping. Yes, that sucks, but if you do enough of these, you will see the truth of that.
In other words, here's the bad news to your original question.
The entire industry is "behind the times" if you will, considering that there is not yet one comprehensive and effective package to combat this problem.
There are a lot of reasons for this. A principle one is legal issues. No one can claim that their virus is legitimate and security pros had no right to remove it.
However, that is the claim everyday with spyware, and producing software to remove it is a dicy business.
This is way over-simplified, but you get the idea. The battle against adware is not as cut and dried as the anti-virus battle.
There aren't any laws against it, and the creators of many common pests are hot to sue the creators of utilities that remove their pests.
This will get worse before it gets better.
I give a large number of presentations and explanations such as the one you have been asked to give to businesses every day.
This is a more difficult and complicated problem than people can easily understand. Explaining this to them in a professional perspective while offering solid solutions is hard to do.
If you want further help in "teaching" others in your company about this problem, what they can do to help, and what it is going to take to get it under control, let us know.
Be happy to help.
GOOD LUCK AND GOD SPEED!
PS: Don't worry if everyone is scratching their heads or trying desperately to look like they understand the problem after you do your first presentation. THAT IS NORMAL.
:)
AOSCLAY
PEBKAC
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If you go into a default setup of SpyBot S&D and select Advanced mode, Settings and then "Ignore products", and scan down the list, you will find several checked for ignore. I would suspect there were some legal issues that caused this.
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