Spyware Counter-Countermeasures?

[Kyle Thomas Pope]

Given the popularity of the two programs Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D as
well as the many times they've been mentioned in this forum as
must-have apps for anyone concerned with keeping spyware and malware
off their machines, I am curious as to whether the spyware and malware
distributors have ever tried releasing into their products routines
designed to disable, destroy or bypass Ad-Aware or Spybot. It would
seem to me a spyware vendor would like nothing better than a spyware
app that cannot be detected and removed from the target system by any
means.

-----
Kyle Pope

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered!" - No. 6

Keeper of the Edit List -

(http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/columns/edit-list.php)


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[mto]

"Kyle Thomas Pope" <kurokyle@notmail.spam.not.com> wrote in message
news:u6jlhvk7i3qg5dbcul6a0vdf4eok3ifive@4ax.com...
> Given the popularity of the two programs Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D as
> well as the many times they've been mentioned in this forum as
> must-have apps for anyone concerned with keeping spyware and malware
> off their machines, I am curious as to whether the spyware and malware
> distributors have ever tried releasing into their products routines
> designed to disable, destroy or bypass Ad-Aware or Spybot. It would
> seem to me a spyware vendor would like nothing better than a spyware
> app that cannot be detected and removed from the target system by any
> means.
>
> -----

GOD don't give them any ideas please ! The spyware folks keep trying and
the AdAware/Spybot/firewall folks keep tracking them down in a never ending
race. I did run across some code at MSNBC a while back that reset all the
ZoneAlarm privacy settings for the MSNBC page to Allow. Turned off
javascript for MSNBC & blocked akamai - which means no menu and no
pictures - and it hasn't happened again. Pages load in a flash too - but
ugleeeee as heck.

[Kyle Thomas Pope]

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 21:12:50 -0000, "Dick Hazeleger"
<Dick@post_it_in_the_newsgroup.com> wrote:

>BTW: Your sig... itsn't that from "The Prisoner"?

There aren't many people still around who would recognize that show.
That doesn't mean they haven't stopped trying to build The Village.

-----
Kyle Pope

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered!" - No. 6

Keeper of the Edit List -

(http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/columns/edit-list.php)


----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

[BoB]

>Kyle Thomas Pope wrote:
>
>> Given the popularity of the two programs Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D as
>> well as the many times they've been mentioned in this forum as
>> must-have apps for anyone concerned with keeping spyware and malware
>> off their machines, I am curious as to whether the spyware and malware
>> distributors have ever tried releasing into their products routines
>> designed to disable, destroy or bypass Ad-Aware or Spybot. It would
>> seem to me a spyware vendor would like nothing better than a spyware
>> app that cannot be detected and removed from the target system by any
>> means.
>> -----
>> Kyle Pope

You may want to look into adding SpywareBlaster to your arsenal.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster/

BoB

[Jay T. Blocksom]

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 10:14:21 -0700, in <alt.privacy.spyware>, Kyle Thomas
Pope <kurokyle@notmail.spam.not.com> wrote:
>
[snip]

> It would
> seem to me a spyware vendor would like nothing better than a spyware
> app that cannot be detected and removed from the target system by any
> means.
>
[snip]

Quite correct. Which is why, as useful as popular after-the-fact band-aids
like AdAware or SS&D are, they can never be a proper substitute for simply
not putting yourself in a position to need them in the first place. That
means do NOT use known-bad software like MSIE/OE, DO use a decent firewall
(a proper hardware-based one being STRONGLY preferred), do NOT routinely
web-browse with scripting or Java enabled, DO use a local HTTP-filtering
proxy (like Proxomitron, for example), do NOT install anything "blind"
(i.e., DO have at least one known-good full backup in hand before starting
any install or update, then use a decent installation tracker like InCtrl),
do NOT enable ANY "automatic update" features in ANYTHING, including Windows
itself), and so on and so on.

In short: Practice Safe Computing.

--

Jay T. Blocksom
--------------------------------
Appropriate Technology, Inc.
usenet01[at]appropriate-tech.net


"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

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