Posted By: John H.
another good reason to scan for spyware - 08/09/05 01:20 AM
Massive ID Theft Ring Uncovered -- uses "CoolWebSearch" spyware --
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122149,tk,dn080805X,00.asp
This means crackers can empty your bank account, damage your credit rating, and worse, if you keep any sensitive information on your hard drive, and/or do any online shopping/banking/trading.
Anyone running Windows should run 2 or 3 spyware scanners/cleanup utilities, at a bare minimum. There's no one 'silver bullet' program that catches them all at present.
• CWShredder is free, and targets CoolWebSearch in particular:
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/
• Ad-Aware is also free:
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html
• as is Spybot S&D:
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html
• If you run Windows 2000 or XP, Microsoft Antispyware is also free (won't run on Windows 98 or ME):
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
• SpywareBlaster is free, and keeps a lot of spyware from getting into your machine to begin with:
http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022_4-10396039.html
Some other good antispyware programs that cost money are Sunbelt CounterSpy, and Webroot Spy Sweeper.
All of these need updated definitions from time to time, just like antivirus programs do; and system scans should be run periodically, just like with an antivirus program. Spyware has actually become a larger problem than viruses here in the last couple of years.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122149,tk,dn080805X,00.asp
This means crackers can empty your bank account, damage your credit rating, and worse, if you keep any sensitive information on your hard drive, and/or do any online shopping/banking/trading.
Anyone running Windows should run 2 or 3 spyware scanners/cleanup utilities, at a bare minimum. There's no one 'silver bullet' program that catches them all at present.
• CWShredder is free, and targets CoolWebSearch in particular:
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/
• Ad-Aware is also free:
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html
• as is Spybot S&D:
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html
• If you run Windows 2000 or XP, Microsoft Antispyware is also free (won't run on Windows 98 or ME):
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
• SpywareBlaster is free, and keeps a lot of spyware from getting into your machine to begin with:
http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022_4-10396039.html
Some other good antispyware programs that cost money are Sunbelt CounterSpy, and Webroot Spy Sweeper.
All of these need updated definitions from time to time, just like antivirus programs do; and system scans should be run periodically, just like with an antivirus program. Spyware has actually become a larger problem than viruses here in the last couple of years.