It has been a long week.
CNN published a story today about the Botnet probe - the alleged threat from a New Zealand teen trying to take over one million computers. Sounds like a plot from Doctor Evil. Mmmwwwaaaaahhhhaaaaahhhhhaaaaa.
I considered my computer to be pretty safe from viruses, spyware, adware and malware until last week. I have Spybot, Ad-Aware, and Norton 360 (no link for a reason) loaded and ran routine checks to keep things in line. My browser of choice is Firefox which has some great built in features to protect against malicious code. Why do I like firefox? Two words - tabbed browsing.
Thanksgiving brought on some added treats. I started getting a lot of pop up windows (from Internet Explorer) so I knew something was wrong. A nasty spyware program - Smitfraud-C.CoreService had made it's way on my computer. Ad-Aware didn't see it, Norton 360 didn't see it, Spybot found it but could not remove it. I thought I would approach the folks at Norton 360 to solve the problem - especially since it was the spyware program that I paid for.
After many hours of online chat with their support group, I found that Norton was glad to solve the problem - for the low low fee of $99.00. My question was - why am I paying for a program that only covers part of the threat. Their program touts coverage from Spyware, Malware and Viruses. The tech supports response was that this particular spyware was considered to be a "third party program" and was not covered. If I wanted it removed, I will have to pay. This is our company policy - will that be Master Card or Visa.
I asked if Norton had products I could buy that would fix the problem and protect me from future threats - no luck. I then decided to look for alternatives online. The spyware program I bought was Spyware Doctor and it is awesome. $29.95 solved my problem and I doubt I will ever subscribe to Norton again.
Just one word Ubuntu. The amount of money being made from programs that protect Windows is obscene. The fact that you already had installed several programs yet had to buy another one just reinforces the problem. What makes this aggravating is that there is no reason. There are lots of operating systems out that are not susceptible to this type of attack. Some, like Ubuntu are even free, others like the Mac OS are more expensive than Windows. They all have the same UNIX heritage. Part of that heritage is an ironclad rule that before the OS installs a new program or accesses a drive you have to enter your password and give your permision. It sounds like a pain but its not. It gives you a chance to stop mal-ware before it gets established.
Sorry about your problem
Posted by: XMayor | November 30, 2007 at 07:23 AM
XMayor Bob,
Good point on Ubuntu. I might consider a switch if the headaches grow.
I hate the fact that I have to spend time getting rid of this junk.
Posted by: Ronnie Roach | November 30, 2007 at 08:49 PM