I've been getting loads of this crap just lately, and rather worryingly, some of it has been addressing me by name, including an invitation to an afternoon session with Naughty Nina and a couple of her mates!!

I've noticed on a couple of occassions that I have had to wait for a programme called eZula to close when I've been shutting down windows and had no idea what it was. I remembered a post by cthree a while back where he posted a link to this site...

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

It's a freebie download which looks for spyware implanted on your system. It seems it often comes as 'Catch 22' with some free programmes you can download off the web. Once implanted they're usually none malicious Trojans but it seems that they enable the senders to monitor what you're browsing or interested in buying, hence the loads of spam mail.

This is a great little programme 'Ad Aware' that scans your system and identifies this spyware on your computer. I ran it last night and it found 12 instances including eZula and it removed them all with no problem. Some of the original freebie programmes may not run once the spyware is removed, but that's not always the case.

I'd highly recommend you running this, as it seems they drastically slow down your bandwidth. I've been having real problems posting on S2Ki for ages and they seem to have cleared up since running this programme.

I'm not one of those people who are paranoid about using the internet but this is very underhanded and when it starts buggering about with your system it's no joke.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Cedric Tomkinson
[B]I've been getting loads of this crap just lately, and rather worryingly, some of it has been addressing me by name, including an invitation to an afternoon session with Naughty Nina and a couple of her mates!!

 

I use Zone Alarm which protects against any uninvited access to your system via the internet

 

thanks for the tip

- Hotmail was becoming a joke - but I have noticed that they upped the security in recent days, but now some legitimate e-mails don't get through - like flight confirmations or rental car bookings!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Frisky
[B]

I think we all have an idea of your browsing habits now then Tonky!!!!

 

Cedric, I was at a networking conference in Utah last year and attended a session by Laura Chappel.
As the Net has become more popular the opportunities for this kind of underhand exploitation have increased immensely.

Check out :
http://www.packet-level.com/archives.htm#gnutella

Much of the MP3 etc. swapping software and clients have hidden spyware which can seriously undermine even corporate networks !

 

The thing with this spyware is that it's being used by many reputable firms although many are are now withdrawing from it as it's starting to get a bad name.

Pete I'm not sure if Zone alarm will protect against this as you effectively invite the spyware onto your system when you download the freebie programme. Some of the music download programmes are big offenders, Gozilla is another. I'm behind a hardware firewall with my Lynksis router!

You can run Ad Aware in the background and it detects this stuff at download and warns you. There's a full list of known offending sites available via the link I posted above.

 

Ct - what you are saying this is different to being hacked right? because I have a router system so effectively my IP address does not exist to the internet so I can't be scanned or hacked directly, however the downloaded stuff can send info out??

 

Kobe

If I run 'Shields Up' to check my address and ports, I don't exist to the 'net at all, I'm operating in full stealth mode. These bits of spyware are implanted without your knowledge along with freebie programmes you download. That's the difference... you unwittingly invite this stuff onto your system. Nobody gives you anything for nothing, be suspicious of any free progs that don't contain pop-up advertising. Have a good read on that Ad Ware site for lots of info about this stuff.

 

Cedric, the techie director of my web company has just emailed me to confirm you were quite correct. he says...
______________________________

The best removal software is from
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/, called Ad-aware but it often blocks normal websites from working as well, so be aware

Also check out

http://www.cexx.org/adware.htm

http://www.spyware.co.uk/

http://www.trapware.com/PressTrapware.html

http://www.spychecker.com/index.html
____________________________

Pete