Top 10 Nasty Spywares Progs

[cojones]

Friday 10 December 2004, 23:45:57

United Kingdom

Written by Net 4 Nowt

Spyware and adware, as well as new and emerging potentially unwanted programs, are among the top 10 threats currently affecting businesses and consumers, according to Webroot Software. These findings are based on research conducted by the Webroot dedicated in-house Threat Research Team, which is overseen by Richard Stiennon, the vice president of threat research.

“The people who write this stuff are gaining sophistication in their coding practices as they attempt to evade detection and removal,” said Stiennon. “These 10 are the most insidious programs in terms of prevalence and effect.”

The 10 most significant emerging spyware and adware threats based on detection as well as potential impact:

PurityScan – PurityScan frequently displays pop-up advertisements onto your computer whenever you are online. It induces you to install it by claiming to find and delete pornographic images.

n-CASE (msbb.exe) – n-CASE is an adware program that delivers targeted pop-up advertisements to your computer. This program is usually bundled with freeware applications.

Gator (GAIN) – is an adware program that has the ability to display banner advertisements based on your Web surfing habits. Gator is usually bundled with numerous free software programs, including the popular file-sharing program Kazaa.

CoolWebSearch (CWS) – CoolWebSearch has the ability to hijack your Web searches, home page, and Internet Explorer settings. Recent variants of CoolWebSearch install using malicious HTML applications or security flaws, such as exploits in the HTML Help format and Microsoft Java Virtual machines.

Transponder (vx2) – Transponder is an IE Browser Helper Object that monitors requested web pages and data entered into online forms, then delivers targeted advertisements.

ISTbar/AUpdate – ISTbar is a toolbar used for searching pornographic web sites that has been reported to display pornographic pop-ups and to hijack your homepage and Internet searches.

KeenValue – KeenValue is an adware program that collects personal information and delivers advertisements to your computer.

Internet Optimizer – Internet Optimizer hijacks error pages and redirects them to its own controlling server at http://www.internet-optimizer.com.

Perfect Keylogger – Perfect Keylogger is a monitoring tool that records all visited web sites, keystrokes and mouse clicks. For example, it can log passwords, account numbers and other sensitive information. It is usually installed manually.

TIBS Dialer – T IBS Dialer is a dialer program that hijacks your modem and dials toll numbers, usually to access pornographic "pay" Web sites.

“It’s our goal to inform Internet users of the ramifications of having potentially unwanted programs on their systems,” said Stiennon. “It is their choice to keep or remove these programs based on the information available to them. We’re making sure they have that information so they are making knowledgeable decisions.”

Webroot recommends consumers and businesses alike take several precautions to combat these problematic applications. For increased security, install Microsoft security patches, avoid using freeware, and disable downloads via ActiveX in Internet Explorer.

Additionally, install an anti-spyware software program for desktop defense, such as Webroot Spy Sweeper for consumers with individual computers or Spy Sweeper Enterprise for businesses running on network architecture.

[udon]

Hmm, Webroot found the following........

Spyware Found on Your Computer

Trojans

0

System Monitors

1

--------

Visual Log

1

Adware

0

Adware Cookies (See list)

(Close list)

Adbureau Cookie

Adminder Cookie

Adrevolver Cookie

Adserver Cookie

Atwola Cookie

Bizrate Cookie

Bluestreak Cookie

Bravenet Cookie

Bs.serving-sys Cookie

BurstNet Cookie

Cardomain Cookie

Casalemedia Cookie

Com.com Cookie

Dealtime Cookie

Domain Sponsor Cookie

Humanclick Cookie

myaffiliateprogram.com Cookie

onestat.com Cookie

Pointroll Cookie

Pricegrabber Cookie

Qksrv Cookie

Realmedia Cookie

Server.iad.Liveperson Cookie

Serving-sys Cookie

Statcounter Cookie

TribalFusion Cookie

Tripod Cookie

Weborama Cookie

So much for Spybot and Spyware Blaster, they both came up with nothing

[cdnvic]

So much for Spybot and Spyware Blaster, they both came up with nothing

I think that the rate at which these threats develop, it depends on how recent the program was last updated to which is more thorough. I just run multiple programs and keep a long-distance lock (needs password) on the line my dsl is on. (Those dialers can be a bitch).

cv

[chingy_]

so what is the best spyware to use?

[Thetyim]

I just run a webroot spy audit and I am as clean as a whistle.

Using Firefox and not IE6

[Highwayman]

One thing to be aware of with Webroot Spysweeper is the way it reports what it finds is different to Ad-aware and Spybot. Recently l ran these three programs on the same computer and got the following results;

Ad-aware: 200 items found

Spybot: 120 items found

Webroot: 900+ items found

I then decided to use Ad-aware first to remove the 200 spyware items it detected. After it had cleaned them l then ran the Webroot Spysweeper scan again. You might expect that it would find the hundreds of items that Ad-aware had supposedly missed but guess what? It found 5 minor items only. It's a good utility, no doubt about that but l think it tries to impress by showing its results in such a way that it appears better than other spyware removers to encourage users to upgrade to the paid version. In any case there is no one utility that can find everything, you need a combination of tools to achieve the best results.

Some of those cookies found by Udon l suspect may be cookies you need to use on some websites that will not work properly if you don't allow them to be set. It also depends on how you have each program set up. There is a lot of tweaking you can do with Ad-aware and Spybot that will change what they report.

[cdnvic]

so what is the best spyware to use?

I assume you mean spyware remover.

Here's a topic where everyone gave their input on it.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=22292

cv

[Tarragona]

Hmm. I ran the webroot spy audit and it found a system monitor but I downloaded the trial version of webroot spy sweeper and it didn't detect it.

[Steve2UK]

I can highly recommend e-Trust Pest Patrol from Computer Associates - they just brought out a new version that found two Trojans and a keylogger on my system (which is constantly protected by SpywareGuard, Zone Alarm Pro & Norton Anti-Virus - but these still slipped through).

Pest Patrol updates itself daily to install any new detection profiles that have been issued - and it's very quick in scanning your entire system. Check it out here:

http://www.ca.com/

Steve