Hey, Who’s Peeping Through My Windows?

So who hates Spyware? Ok, that’s a trick question, since I have yet to see anyone jumping for joy when they find some annoying process running in the background and they have no idea what it is doing other than consuming huge amounts of memory and CPU usage and...no matter what...they just can't seem to kill it.

Well I wish I could tell you that all is well in the world of computing and that this “crap”-ware is on a decline, but I can’t. Googling statistics on the Internet showed me some very scary statistics. Do you want to see them? Of course you do! These results were compiled from Webroot's and EarthLink's Spy Audit programs.

Total number of scans: 3,219,855
Instances of spyware per scanned PC: 26 (Yeah that is 26 separate instances per PC)
Total instances of spyware found: 83,422,785 (Do I need to say more?)

Now that I have given you the frightening statistics, lets get going on how you can protect your PC from spyware (Tidbit: I am using spyware as a generic term for all spyware, adware, and monitors, cookies, and Trojans you don’t necessarily want on your system).

Spending Some Money (Initially…)

Okay, I know that you don’t want to spend money on software. I don’t either its expensive! But you need to have antivirus software PERIOD. Now many might complain that they don’t do a good job, but consider the market they are in. Remember we only see antivirus software’s failures, never their successes. You never hear someone jumping for joy saying, “Hey! Mcafee Antivirus just caught my system trying to get infected by the Blaster worm! Wow, it saved my whole network!” It’s more of the “Thanks Symantec for letting that virus get ahold of my system like that.” Remember Windows Updates and antivirus software goes hand in hand.

So look at Mcafee (www.Mcafee.com) and Symantec (www.Symantec.com) antivirus software. They are the two most popular right now. If you find another you like, use it. I am not trying to sell you to a brand, only the idea of owning antivirus software. Oh yeah, here is another thing, weekly updates. Both of these company’s have weekly updates to your search engine and to the library of viruses it searches for.

I Have Spyware Installed on My PC, Now What?

Now this is where I am sure everyone skipped to since this is what this article is about. Prevention is one thing, but once it has penetrated that outer wall of defenses, its time to fight fire with fire. Here are some great tools to use in order to clean out your system when you feel that you have been infected by spyware.

Ø      Spybot: (Click Here To Download)

Ø      Ad-Aware: (Click Here To Download)

The first two here are one in the same. I have found that they are pretty accurate when removing much of the current forms of spyware. Both have periodic updates that you can download to clean out your system. I prefer ad-aware just because I use it. Both have very simple interfaces to work with for not only updating their search capabilities but also the actual spyware detection.

Ø      CW Shredder and Hijack This! (Click Here To Download)

CW Shredder and Hijack This! are two quiet applications that are gaining a lot of popularity. Both help you recover from when your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla) are hijacked and taken over with spyware. For example, have you ever opened up Internet Explorer and noticed, no matter what you do, your homepage is set to some website you would never have even visited? Hijacking applications are very vicious and tough to clean out, but it is doable. I have a friend whose IE was so bad he couldn’t clean it, so he installed the Mozilla web browser just to get around using IE! I was able to spend a good half-day on it and finally got it working after using a combination of these tools.

Ø      Yahoo! Toolbar (Click Here To Download)

Ø      Google Toolbar (Click Here To Download)

Both the Yahoo! And Google toolbars are great. (See this TechTrax article for more details on the Google Toolbar: Get the Google Toolbar.) Personally, I am a Google type of guy and love my Google toolbar. It is easy to install (just a couple of clicks) and not only offers its popup blocking capabilities, but extends its Internet searching engine right into your browser! The Yahoo! toolbar is almost identical to the design and functionality of Google’s and I can’t honestly tell you which one works better. I say pick one, if you like it stick with it. If not, change it up. Remember these uninstall just as easy as they install.

How’d This Get Here?!?!

You have to have an idea on how this stuff gets installed on your PC before you can go crush it with your new found power tools. Maybe your dad heard you wanted that new Britney Spears song and figured he would just download it for you on your company laptop you let him use at home?

Here is a screen capture of Spybot’s Search & Destroy. Looks like I have some spyware on my system. So how’d it get there if I have never installed any P2P software on my computer?

Some of the spyware is not as harmful as others. A lot of this is just junk that doesn’t affect my performance (too much).

Windows XP Service Pack 2

Windows XP Service Pack 2 is a great idea as much as it seems otherwise. Internet Explorer gets the addition of a built in pop-up blocker and also has new settings that warn you when web objects are attempting to install on your computer.

How To Use These Tools

It is important to understand that these tools when used in conjunction with one another are very effective in removing spyware from your system. When I am infected these are the steps I found to work the best:

1. Download the above tools, install them and get any updates that may be out for them (only should apply to Spybot and Adware. CW Shredder and HijackThis! are just new versions).
2. Reboot your system into safe mode. (Reboot and then when windows begins to start up, hit F8 and you can select Safe Mode)
3. Run Adware/Spybot to find and clean any infected files.
4. Run Hijack This! to clean out Internet Explorer (or other browsers) from unwanted default settings for search engines, etc.
5. Run CW Shredder
6. Reboot and startup normally.

Note 1: Be careful when running CW Shredder and Hijack This! It may want to remove items that toolbars like Google and Yahoo! setup. Be careful to go through each item when necessary and also to backup any changes when applicable. Most of these applications prompt you to back up anyway.

Note 2: I find booting in safe mode is the best way to remove any unwanted startup items that are not always removed when Windows is running in regular mode.

What to Stay Away From

Your main source of spyware comes from I hate to say it, Peer to Peer (P2P) applications. These include but are not limited to: iMesh, Limewire, and Kazaa. There basic function is to install other company’s spyware in order for you to use their file swapping tool. These applications are killers and feed spyware into your system like there is no tomorrow. If you have them installed, get rid of them.

Example of the Spyware Nightmare

So I went ahead and built a Windows XP workstation with nothing on it. No antivirus or any sort of spyware protection/scanning. I then proceeded to install 3 of the top Peer to Peer applications from Downloads.com (iMesh, Morpheus, and Kazaa). I installed each and watched my system resources vanish before the blink of an eye. Take a look at the image below:

Notice all those JoeUser applications running? Outside explorer.exe, VMWareTray.exe, and VMWareUser.exe that is all installed by these P2P applications! Look, I have Morpheus running taking up 14,700mb of memory, but add up all those others and you have quite a bit of your system resources consumed. Over 80 megs of memory worth of applications running on your system that you might not necessarily know about. Eeek!

After installing Ad-Aware I ran a scan on my local system and found the following results in the image below (Scary huh?). Hopefully this gives you a rough idea on how hazardous P2P applications are.

Hey I Wanna Here From You!

Did you enjoy this article? Do you want to learn more about fighting spyware? Let me know what you think? I am still interested in automation, etc. Let me know what you want to hear/learn about and I will be glad to investigate it. Feel free to contact me at droche7@hotmail.com for any topics you would like me to cover. If you don’t know if I know about it, just ask.

Thanks and Happy Holidays to everyone!