Thursday, April 06, 2006

Beware of rogue anti spyware programs (and some good ones you can use)

With spyware and adware being such huge problems on the Internet, it's no wonder there are so many programs around to fix and / or prevent spyware and adware on your computer. While some of these programs, even free ones, will help in the fight against spyware, there are unfortunately many rogue or suspect anti spyware programs freely available for download. Many of these are marketed aggressively, leading to many people unwittingly ending up with huge problems.

Some of the rogue or suspect programs, such as SpywareQuake, can include spyware, adware or Trojans in their installations. To see whether your anti spyware program or programs might be rogue or suspect, see this list at Spyware Warrior. The list is regularly updated and can be trusted.

Just one anti-spyware program is not enough - you really need multi-layered protection to maintain adequate coverage of new threats which are being released daily. I recommend a minimum of two spyware scanners and one which offers real-time protection.

I recommend Ad-Aware SE Personal edition as a first line of defense. The producers, Lavasoft, have been in the spyware and adware protection game almost as long as spyware and adware have been around. Their research department is always on the ball and new definition updates are available every few days. Incredibly, the personal edition is still free! The commercial versions include extras such as real-time protection and are well worth investigating.



Another must-have program is Spybot Search & Destroy. It has also been around for a long time and is completely free. The producers, Safer Networking, run on donations only, so if you use and like the program, please consider making a small contribution. Just think of the technician fees (not to mention hair) you'll save! Spybot includes browser protection via immunization and bad site blocking. It also has real-time protection (called "Tea Timer") as an option, but it does have some display issues. I'm looking for a workaround for this. In the mean time, if you enable the Tea Timer and occasionally get a dialog like this:














... the button on the right is to deny the change (if you suspect malicious intent) and the button to the left is to allow the change (if you're installing a trusted program).

Spybot's main screen looks like this:



For free, real-time protection, I recommend and use SpywareGuard by JavaCool Software. Again, this program is completely free, and does a great job of monitoring any attempts to change browser settings.



Another useful, free offering from JavaCool is SpywareBlaster, which doesn't even need to be running to provide protection.



Remember, protection software is only as good as the last update, so please do update regularly.

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