The spyware that loved me

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This story is eerily familiar

I'm the network admin for a 150 user company. We have 3 public PCs available in cafeterias for employees to browse the web on, and these systems collect a never-ending amount of trash. I'm truly amazed at the nerve of companies that push this crud out to people, for they seem to think they're going to profit by tormenting users with popups, home page hijackings, unwanted icons and links and all the other detritus.

I use Spywareblaster to prevent the junk from getting on the systems in the first place, and then Ad-Aware and Spybot to clear it out once it's gone. Also, hijackthis.exe can tell you what is loading when the computer starts up which can be very helpful. All this stuff can be found through a Google search. It's just as important to educate users to never click Yes when asked by a website if they want to install anything, and to steer clear of the sites that pull those kinds of gimmicks (yeah, I know, with some users I might as well ask them to not breathe).

I've run across some PCs that just couldn't be properly restored to normal no matter what I did. One system in particular has been totally disinfected of spyware (as far as I can tell), but it still takes a minute or so longer to log in (the "Applying personal settings" message box shows during this delay, leading me to believe the user's profile has somehow gotten distorted) so that's going to wind up reimaged to fully fix it. Frankly, I'm waiting a couple of days to do this so I can fully drive home to the user how irritating it is to have your PC messed up after gleefully clicking "Yes" to every "Do you want to install and run" prompt you come across when browsing seedy websites.

I remember the good old days when the worst annoyance a website might deliver is a flashing banner ad. Now it seems like spam, viruses and spyware are well on their way to ruining the internet experience for many people. Hopefully those of us who support systems for a living will keep the tide going in our direction and continue to keep these parasites and their software at bay.

Posted by: mreilly19   Posted on: 04/09/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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