Spybot S & D sizeable update

[BMG_SKULK]

Biggest single update I have seen in 3 plus years for Spybot S&D including hi-jack protection and keyloggers.

(Update and Program link if you don't use S & D already...which is free and a mean little program. Supports all languages.)

http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html

[KeithB]

That's a nice program to clean up after silly users.
But I never use it because I never use IE and don't download warez and hacked stuff. YMMV.

[juggernaut]

cool. thanks. it is a great program.

[BMG_SKULK]

That's a nice program to clean up after silly users.
But I never use it because I never use IE and don't download warez and hacked stuff. YMMV.
I don't use IE or download warez either...but it's a good thing to have anyway.

Sites and their ads, hackers, getting better and more subtle all the time.

[Prez]

That's a nice program to clean up after silly users.
But I never use it because I never use IE and don't download warez and hacked stuff. YMMV.

Malware, spyware, trojans, hijackers, trackers and other malicious stuff are everywhere, not just on IE and "warez".

[stratman56]

Thanks for letting us me know. Spybot is a great program!

[KeithB]

Malware, spyware, trojans, hijackers, trackers and other malicious stuff are everywhere, not just on IE and "warez".

Yeah, but not using IE will prevent 90+% of it.

[BMG_SKULK]

Yeah, but not using IE will prevent 90+% of it.
Can I not post one simple, good intended and helpful post without you ******* and moaning about it.

Sick of this ****...

If you don't like it...simply please don't use it.

Millions of threads here...

[BMG_SKULK]

Simply a matter of positive...progress...

[gtrhrcane]

I don't see any reason to chime in if you have nothing to add other than ridiculous comments. Leave it alone IOW. There's a whole forum out there...

[Terren]

Cool, I've been having some problems lately, maybe this update will help. *scanning now*. Thanks for the heads up.

[Prez]

Yeah, but not using IE will prevent 90+% of it.

Only because IE has been the big Kahuna for a long time. Now that Firefox is becoming more ubiquitous, it is only a matter of time imo. It already has seen the start of these problems.

[phingerboard]

I don't understand the resistance to ads. Webmasters who provide valuable free content must rely on advertising to foot their bills, as the site owners certainly don't make any money off of the seekers of "free". When or if advertising on content sites no longer pays off for advertisers, a lot of good free content sites will either wither away or resort to partnering with spyware outfits to monetize their efforts.

[disposed hero]

Thanks dude, found a whole bunch of crap i didnt know was there.

[scott powell]

Yeah, but not using IE will prevent 90+% of it.


still owe you a beer for telling me bout Opera

[KeithB]

still owe you a beer for telling me bout Opera

No worries. Pay it forward. Share the joy with some other user ;)

[BMG_SKULK]

I don't understand the resistance to ads. Webmasters who provide valuable free content must rely on advertising to foot their bills, as the site owners certainly don't make any money off of the seekers of "free". When or if advertising on content sites no longer pays off for advertisers, a lot of good free content sites will either wither away or resort to partnering with spyware outfits to monetize their efforts.
Nothing wrong with ads...and yeah...it keeps alot of things free..but attaching crap to it that has nothing to do with ads...but instead the ad's way of making ends meet.

Ads within an ad is what I am talking about.

If you have a really good product...it will sell itself...

But, we've had this debate before...so I'm not going to be sucked into the same ol' same ol'... ;)

[phingerboard]

Ads within an ad is what I am talking about.

And these are the most pernicious of the bunch (of trojan-horse spyware operators).

But for all the hoopla and hype that the "remover" programs trump up their services with, the fact is that most of them are pretty slow to catch the johnny-come-lately's. You'd probably be better off keeping up with current watchdog lists and blocking rogue domains manually.

http://www.benedelman.org has a lot of good info on the usual suspects.

[fastvfr]

Only because IE has been the big Kahuna for a long time. Now that Firefox is becoming more ubiquitous, it is only a matter of time imo. It already has seen the start of these problems.

A much bigger problem with IE is that the stupid thing IS the kernel.

IE = Windows Explorer; this application is not just for the Internet. This is, IMO, a supremely lazy and insecure way of coding an OS.

Hence, whilst surfing the web your Internet Exploder is hanging its most sensitive bits right on out there and stomping its way through a minefield.

Opera, Ff and all other 3rd party browsers are modules that do not access the Windows kernel directly. This is as it should be; IE is an abortion, as is ActiveX.

Ever wonder why you cannot update from the M$ site with any browsers besides IE? Well, now you know.

And FYI, ads aren't the real problem. The real problem lies in keyloggers and other malware apps that send data from your machine to their servers without your knowledge pr permission.

SB S&D helps control infection from several types of malware, and Ad-Aware is a great adjunct to this end. It usually finds crap SB misses.

IMO the biggest risk to the average Windows user is IE; between the heinous toolbars and driveby installs of crapware, there's just no call for that.

Just use an alternate browser and, as KeithB stated, nine out of ten online security risks are eliminated instantly.

[fastvfr]

BTW, and BT topic, the reason for the megalithic S&D update is that ALL the defs are getting uploaded each time.

SB searches for over 40,000 nasties, and that's just un the basic scanner itself--not counting Immunizations and the other modules...

When SB is upgraded to ver. 1.5, the update DLs will be smaller.

For a while...

[Prez]

A much bigger problem with IE is that the stupid thing IS the kernel.

IE = Windows Explorer; this application is not just for the Internet. This is, IMO, a supremely lazy and insecure way of coding an OS.

Hence, whilst surfing the web your Internet Exploder is hanging its most sensitive bits right on out there and stomping its way through a minefield.

Opera, Ff and all other 3rd party browsers are modules that do not access the Windows kernel directly. This is as it should be; IE is an abortion, as is ActiveX.

Ever wonder why you cannot update from the M$ site with any browsers besides IE? Well, now you know.

And FYI, ads aren't the real problem. The real problem lies in keyloggers and other malware apps that send data from your machine to their servers without your knowledge pr permission.

SB S&D helps control infection from several types of malware, and Ad-Aware is a great adjunct to this end. It usually finds crap SB misses.

IMO the biggest risk to the average Windows user is IE; between the heinous toolbars and driveby installs of crapware, there's just no call for that.

Just use an alternate browser and, as KeithB stated, nine out of ten online security risks are eliminated instantly.

All good points. I use Mozilla, but stuff still winds up on my drive from time to time.

[fastvfr]

Prez, do you use a firewall?

Most software solutions are utter garbage, either letting everything through or locking the PC down tighter than is necessary, so feel free to just use the XP version if you are on dialup.

If you use broadband, though (particularly with a static IP address), then a hardware router (NOT a simple hub) with NAT stateful packet filtering ought to be in your future.

They are not expensive, and not hard to set up, but present a real hurdle for the bad guys' creepy little inventions.

[stratman50th]

Biggest single update I have seen in 3 plus years for Spybot S&D including hi-jack protection and keyloggers.

(Update and Program link if you don't use S & D already...which is free and a mean little program. Supports all languages.)

http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html
Saw that this morning. I was amazed at how much stuff they had ready to go!
I updated this morning, then ran a scan. Still clean thanks to S&D!
For those of you who haven't used it before, look in "tools" then "start up". This will show you everything that's loading on system start-up, then tell you what it is. It gives you a chance to get rid of spyware, malware, trojans, and plain old memory hogs!

[Prez]

Prez, do you use a firewall?

Most software solutions are utter garbage, either letting everything through or locking the PC down tighter than is necessary, so feel free to just use the XP version if you are on dialup.

If you use broadband, though (particularly with a static IP address), then a hardware router (NOT a simple hub) with NAT stateful packet filtering ought to be in your future.

They are not expensive, and not hard to set up, but present a real hurdle for the bad guys' creepy little inventions.

I use a hardware firewall - Netgear wireless router WG614. Most of the crap that gets on my machine is from email and game mods. Fortunately, AVG catches the worst offenders.

[fastvfr]

Yeah, that NetGear is okay. Did you enter the setup and turn the firewall settings on, though? It isn't automagic by any means.

All you do is enter the router's IP into your browser window. You really do have to do this, since that router has wireless capabilities that are wide-open by default.

If you haven't locked 'er down, please do. You might be surprised as to how much cleaner your PC can stay. Keeps the leeches off your 'Net, too.

Good luck.