Trilight Zone

[digital8]

My mother decided to come down for a visit last June. I am sure that everyone will cringe when I mention that she asked to use my computer to check her email. I know I did, but family is family so I stated ‘Sure, go ahead.” I have to say that if I had known then what I do now I would have stated “No Way!”.

While I cannot be sure that it was my mother that caused the initial spyware infection, I am fairly certain that was the case. What happened in the next 24 hours was a nightmare of pop-up’s, dialogs and actual Trojan virus’s.


False Advertising

Spy-Ware advocates continue to say that it’s the home user that agrees to the installation of the software. They state that the user by installing the application has granted the application permission to perform its functions on the system.

The problem is that when you accept the application called “Internet Turbo Accelerator”, which is advertised as a way to increase your internet connection speed, it should only perform operations limited to what was advertised. If you install an application that states it works as an alarm clock on your PC, why would it need to go to the internet and report your web browsing history?

So from a legal perspective it seems that the adware\spyware community is at least performing false advertising.

Theft

I have another issue with someone tracking my web browsing habits because I downloaded application (X). Unless a EULA pops up and tells me point blank that they are going to be using my computers processing power to send them information that they are going to be selling, then the application should not. I paid for the purchase of my computer, when I paid for that I also paid for the processing cycles that the system performs, over time that cost becomes less and less. Yet in the end I did pay for each processing cycle, now company spyware inc. is unlawfully using my system to perform operations that will result in a profit for their company and a loss to me. This is theft, as an example what if I did the following.

What if I were to go into spyware inc. and use the restroom, every day for a year without the company knowing I was using it? What if I were to use the copy machine or the stapler? I am sure that spyware inc. would most certainly report me as a thief and have me expelled from there property. Just because you let me in the door does not mean that I can do whatever I chose in your place of business or home.

Invasion of Privacy (Wire Tapping)

The federal government has legislation that prevents police and other officials from tapping your phone line without a search warrant. This prevents the government and anyone else from illegally intercepting your phone conversations. This is and has been a basic right since.. well forever.

The Spyware companies are using those same phone lines in many cases to ease drop on your private conversations without your knowledge. While they may not be intercepting voice communications they are monitoring and spying on your private conversations with other internet sites.

So my question is why does the government not consider spyware and its companion adware illegal wiretapping?

Virus

My final topic on Spyware is that it’s impossible to remove. You think I am joking? I found most of the processes that were running on my system. I then did an internet search on those same processes and found them to be of course spyware\adware. I would kill the process, wait 2 or 3 seconds and the process would return. I then found the companies that claimed responsibility for these programs and followed the uninstall instructions. Right there I have shown my intention that I do not want this program on my computer anymore. What happens? I perform the uninstall but it fails, the company posts cryptic instructions on registry keys that need to be remove. I remove them… The spyware comes back. Why because this company using its “rights granted by me” has installed several other spyware programs, each is insuring that the other is in place and that I continue to have the same spyware on the system. Great, well I decide to install XP SP2, because it blocks all those unwanted pop-ups. The download runs all 75+MB come down and…. The service pack disappears from my computer… Okay, so now not only are they still running after I attempted to uninstall them but they are deleting the service pack that I want on my system. I trick the program and pull down the service pack using a dual boot into a different OS. I now apply the service pack hoping that it will stop the pop-ups. Yep it stops the pop-ups as well as internet explorer, and windows explorer. So basically now I figure that something has happened to the computer and uninstall SP2. The computer now functions correctly but the adware is back. I reinstall SP2 and again it breaks the OS features. So I now know that this adware is hooked itself into other processes and not just itself. The designers of the spyware knew SP2 would stop them from at least annoying me with pop-ups so they made it break the OS, and forcing me back to SP1 from which they could have their way.

Spyware is a Virus, it acts like one in the following ways. It prevents itself from being removed by those who legitimately want it removed. The spyware prevents the installation of software that I do want. Finally it is sending data that I do not want sent.

I attempted to use one of the spyware removal programs but it failed to remove the program that was killing SP2, which means that it was not affective.

In June of 2004 I shut the computer down and waited for salvation. Microsoft recently came out with its beta spyware removal tool. I spent about a 15 minutes getting it onto the system and installing it. I ran a side by side scan with an (Updated) version of the anti-spyware program I purchased and the following was the result:

Purchase:
1 infected file
11 infected registry

Microsoft Anti-Spyware
30 infected files
127 infected registry keys.

I new that the anti-spyware I had purchased was a waste of money at that point and let the Microsoft spyware clean the system. Remember that I could not use IE or Explorer before the cleaning…. Well after running the beta and (FREE) tool from Microsoft everything was back to normal. Windows Update even had me re-apply Sp2 because it detected an issue, now that is interesting. The system is now Spyware free, Virus free and running again.

I do not know about you but to me…. I would like to see a class action lawsuit against these spyware companies.