WHY CAN'T SPYWARE DETECT THE SAME STUFF

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken Green
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Ken Green

I run MS SpyWare it comes up with a possible two minimal
threat agents.

I run XoftSpy and I get the following agents detected

3 x Dial/Dialer
11 x TopPicks registry key
1 x Trojan/CWS Combo
1 x Alexa
5 x coolweb search
1 x CWSIEFeats
1 x TrojanDownloader.win32.medket and
1 x tracking cookie

Come on guys if it's going to be MS flagship to stopping
people from completely buggering IE then you got to get
it to work. I am at present contemplating ditching IE
because I am fed up with the bloody trojans and spyware.
 
What was really detected?

Registry entries, left over files, cookies, data miners?

If you are trying to be constructive here MS needs details.


Have you got a log you can post?

Incidently, I use IE daily at work and home and have never gotten any
spyware/trojans/malware and I don't use anything other than Symantec
Antivirus, SpywareBlaster, and SP2.
 
Ken Green said:
I run MS SpyWare it comes up with a possible two minimal
threat agents.

I run XoftSpy and I get the following agents detected
Click to expand...

I'll go with JohnF's second reply.

Two problems here: 1) no industry common definition of what constitutes
spyware. For example, from your list, the Alexa variant is probably the IE
"related" feature---was this Windows 2000? You can argue about this
feature, and folks do, but how you are going to get back information about
"related links" without disclosing the link that you want that information
about beats me! And then you had a cookie or two.

So--what about the others in that list which would be spyware in anybody's
book? False positives--either because this is a difficult field--we
regularly see false positive issues here--or because they are being used to
promote the effectiveness of a shoddy product. Please read Eric Howes'
discussion--he's very careful and I'd trust his evaluation.
ID'ing leftover bits in the registry or elsewhere which are not in
themselves dangerous is another possibility--and there are probably others
as well.

My feeling is that you need to read some good comparative reviews--and
there've been some recent ones of Microsoft Antispyware--not sure whether
they compared it to others or just rated it alone--and go by those. And
bear in mind limitations--at this point, if you abhor tracking cookies and
aren't willing to limit them in the browser, you'll need to run another
product which scans cookies, unless that feature is added to a later release
of Microsoft Antispyware.
 
That's what is unfortunate today about the web. The web
is awesome and has a lot of potential, and can be
secure... but today with all the spyware (that don't ask
permission to install or don't prompt BASTIDS!),
Phishing, Spoofing, etc is really iritating. I'm computer
saavy, but I still have to run multiple programs to try
and keep my computer clean and spend more time
technically running scans than I do browsing the web.

Hope the following helps a little:
- Download the free utilities that get great reviews from
pc magazines and such.
- Fork out the shareware fees on the good programs that
you enjoy and get the job done.
- Use multi antispyware because like another post on this
topic stated, that there is no anti spyware standard
- Remember what programs are in your startup, add/remove
programs, and use MS Antispyware's advanced tools or
msconfig to make sure the crap stays out of your startup
and recognize when something new pops up new in your
add/remove programs.
Look in Add/Remove Programs for programs similar to GAIN,
PrecisionTime, Websearch, Webenhancer, Search toolbar,
etc in your add/remove programs, or when your search page
turns to something totally whack.
 
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