Like I said, it only takes ONE visit to ONE site to get something bad on your PC. Every time I build a PC for a customer and run AdAware, it finds spyware cookies on the PC, and only ONE site has been visited prior to that! Usually the first site visited is the default home page, which I think is one of the msn.com websites (by clicking the blue "e" IE icon on the quick launch toolbar). I do this to first check if the net connection is working. From that one visit I've seen several bad cookies show up like hitbox, humanclick, doubleclick, and a few others. Some of these are probably from their rotating a/d banners, but some of them are those transparent spy .gif's. Most if not all of your news websites have bad cookies. I just checked cnn.com and see they have some 'servedby.a*dve*rtising.com' cookies which you certainly don't want on your PC! I then went back to it, and like I mentioned above, the "bad cookie" then changed to a*d.doubleclick. Fox News' website tries to dump RealMedia/a*ds/a*dstream on your PC. I then went back to it and it also changed to 'servedby.a*dve*rtising.com'. These are those dynamically generated ad banners' malware that change upon every visit. MSNBC as I expected is the worse since they are MSN (owned my MicroSoft Network). They have the atdmt.com, ad.doubleclick, m2.doubleclick, questionmarket.com, and others!
Also, I think I also mentioned that malware can get on a PC via software or even drivers. You don't even have to have email setup or even go to ANY website. AOL software itself probably dumps some type of malware on a PC. Any programs you install that is some kind of freeware that has banners, will usually dump bad things on your PC. I posted something a while back on some Mitsumi drivers for their FA404 combo floppy/media card reader. The software for that had spyware in it! I may know a bit more than the average PC user does about software, but I'm no expert on it. My field is hardware & computers. I wouldn't know where to start to create the ultimate anti-malware software, but it's high time someone DID do it (well, I may know where to START, but that's about it). I don't know what would be so hard about it. Take AdAware for example; all they'd have to do is increase their definitions to include more things. It's just like the definitions updates for AntiVirus software. The AV software (and anti-malware) is only as good as its definitions, and I don't know WHY they just don't include EVERYTHING. 3 times now I've had to send TrendMicro (PCcillin) batches of bad files their AV program missed, so they could include them in their detections! If I alone can come across some ~20 viruses/worms/Trojan Downloaders that their product misses, just imagine how many OTHERS are out there! (BTW, I since changed to Kaspersky AV, which caught ALL of these files PCcillin missed. Norton, Panda, and many others also missed them). That sort of reminds me about the CIA and FBI. Even though they are on the same side, sometimes they flat out refuse to share information about terrorism putting their own priorities and agenda ahead of trying to protect citizens. It's sometimes more important to them to see who "out does" the other and which branch will get the greater funding and accolades in a given year due to the better intelligence gathering capabilities! If they, (and these anti-malware companies) could work together with each other in each of their respective fields, imagine how much better things could be. But unfortunately they are usually more concerned with "out doing" their "competition", and this is CERTAINLY the case with anti-malware vendors. I agree, it does s*ck. Computing should be fun, it once was. But thanks to "cyberterrorist parasites" that have destroyed the internet (INCLUDING Spammers), it can be a dangerous thing. These people that do these things are just another type of predator, and just another kind of terrorist. That's why they've been dubbed "cyberterrorists". Most malware is non-destructive....if you want to call it that. It may not "destroy" things, but it certainly can and will slow a PC down, make it unstable, send personal info about everything you do on your PC back to the creator of the malware, start spamming you, cause loads of stress, etc. However there is also the kind that IS destructive. Either way, it's going to remain a threat and a destructive force until the FTC or FCC starts to take it for what it REALLY is, and do something about it. -Clint God Bless Clint Hamilton, Owner http://OrpheusComputing.com ) ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Clint, Thanks again for all the help. I'll try to get some of this stuff up and running tonight. I don't seem to have too many e-mails to deal with this time. What I meant buy not visiting sites is that I almost NEVER go to any. I hardly ever get on line to surf. These days I've been so busy I hardly have enough time to JUST answer my mail, let alone surf the web. In fact, I don't think I've EVER surfed the web, at least not on this puter. I probably did a bit at the library long before I got this puter (the only one here that's ever been hooked up to the net). I haven't even been to Pogo in over a month. if all of you puter heads know that all spyware or anti-virus software doesn't pick up everything in their searches, why don't you all get together and create something that does, instead of having 20 or 30 different programs that do the same thing? What you've described to me sounds like I'll have to spend an entire day every week (at least) JUST running anti-spyware and or anti-virus stuff. It makes me want to say, I just want a computer to do the things I need it to do, not something I have to spend endless hours every day tweaking. Kinda like a little girl that wants a horse until she finds out all of the stuff she has to do to take care of it. It REALLY sucks that I have to go through all of this just to be able to get on line for a little while! It basically renders the net useless, pointless. Dale In a message dated 8/14/2004 4:33:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time, orpheuscomputing.com writes: > That doesn't matter, all it takes is ONE site, and the harmful things are > always hidden where no one can see them. You can go to a decent, legit, > mainstream popular site you'd never think would have malware, and they DO. > All of those ad*s and a/d banners, a*dve*rtis*ements, etc., you see at > websites are usually loaded with malware. They each can not only have > malware cookies embedded within them, but other things as well like harmful > scripts, vbs, etc. > > An HTML formatted email is the exact same thing as a webpage as far as code > goes. So whatever a webpage can do, and whatever can be embedded within it, > so can it in an HTML formatted email. > > If you have some type of exe malware on your PC, like a Trojan Downloader > for > one example, it can download malware without your knowledge. This is why a > *GOOD* firewall and *PROPERLY CONFIGURED* firewall is a must, and at least > weekly scans by all of the anti-malware programs: AdAware, SpyBot, > SpywareGuard, SpywareBlaster, CWShredder, HijackThis, and whatever else you > can find. All of these mentioned are free, and you find their downloads at > any search engine. Some of this run silently in the background and are not > "scanners", but like I stated earlier are prophylaxis type programs. These > are SpywareBlaster, SpywareGuard, and SpyBot's "Resident Shield" & > "TeaTimer". > > Remember, not one single anti-malware program alone will find everything. > EACH of these anti-malware programs have their faults! This is why it is > imperative that ALL of them are run on a regular basis to ensure a PC is as > clean and malware-free as possible. "CyberTerrorist" type websites are > unfortunately becoming more and more prevalent, and all it takes is an > instant after visiting one (or getting an HTML email) for it to download a > Worm, Virus, Trojan, HiJack, etc., on a computer. > > If you look in the archives for my posts on these matters, you'll get all > the > details you need and which anti-malware programs to use. These have some of > the info in them: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg09448.html > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg09449.html > > I'll post an FYI email on anti-malware programs next. It's from a portion > of > a "Readme" type file I include with all new PC's. > -Clint > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > In a message dated 8/14/2004 2:47:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time, > support orpheuscomputing.com writes: > > >After your run AdAware and remove any malware, run it again to be sure it > >removed it. Then, if it shows up again it's going to continue to show up > due > >to either sites your visiting, or software you're running > > Thanks for all your help Clint. If I wasn't so exhausted I'd do some > of this stuff right now. But the thing is, I almost never go to any sites > and > it comes up. Most nights I just do most of my e-mails and that's it! And > I'm not running any new software. So how can this still get on? I > installed > new software about a month ago, but I've only been picking up Apropos for > about > 2 weeks. I'm sure I ran the spyware thing a few times after the > installation > of the new software and got no spies until two weeks later. Plus, I haven't > even used the software besides the night I installed it. > > Dale ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? 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