Spy/Adware Explosion
Sorry, this isn't a Linux story. In fact, the problem below probably doesn't exist in the Linux world (so maybe this IS a Linux story).
Only very recently a LOT of my Fix-Net (AFxN) calls have involved slow and "funny" PC operation. The problems have turned out to be Spy/Adware. While I know a lot of these things have been lurking about for years, this recent surge (scourge) is a bit alarming in its intensity and pervasiveness. My own computer at home had a few, and my wife's had a bunch. It makes me wonder if a few of these malwares don't invite others like themselves in for a party.
In the field, Spybot is tagging as many as 175-200 little demons on every machine (mainly Win98 & Win2000). WinXP seems to be better at keeping these out, but it may be that XP installations are just newer. Another factor seems to locations with a younger base of users, adolescents through early twenties, who are probably being demographically targeted.
So far, the worst offenders seem to be ClearSearch and InfoSearch (probably the same people). The most insidious aspect I've found is the (admittedly ingenious) tactic of allowing one to uninstall the product with a provided uninstall routine, only to have the adware wait a couple of days and then re-install itself! You can tell this happens internally because the 'ware will be back on a machine that is disconected from the 'Net.
Killing these mal's has made dozens of seemingly old, creaky, Pentium machines downright perky. Some are now running 2-3 times faster, and a few have moved from basically unusable to fine office tools.
Only very recently a LOT of my Fix-Net (AFxN) calls have involved slow and "funny" PC operation. The problems have turned out to be Spy/Adware. While I know a lot of these things have been lurking about for years, this recent surge (scourge) is a bit alarming in its intensity and pervasiveness. My own computer at home had a few, and my wife's had a bunch. It makes me wonder if a few of these malwares don't invite others like themselves in for a party.
In the field, Spybot is tagging as many as 175-200 little demons on every machine (mainly Win98 & Win2000). WinXP seems to be better at keeping these out, but it may be that XP installations are just newer. Another factor seems to locations with a younger base of users, adolescents through early twenties, who are probably being demographically targeted.
So far, the worst offenders seem to be ClearSearch and InfoSearch (probably the same people). The most insidious aspect I've found is the (admittedly ingenious) tactic of allowing one to uninstall the product with a provided uninstall routine, only to have the adware wait a couple of days and then re-install itself! You can tell this happens internally because the 'ware will be back on a machine that is disconected from the 'Net.
Killing these mal's has made dozens of seemingly old, creaky, Pentium machines downright perky. Some are now running 2-3 times faster, and a few have moved from basically unusable to fine office tools.
