Facts about Spyware and Malware

• Spyware and Malware can easily be installed on a system without the user’s knowledge. In some cases one infection can propagate many more infections by downloading and installing malicious software stealthily in the background.
  Reinforcements:
  It only takes one piece of software specifically designed to download and install other pieces of software to infect your system, after all, the beauty of a computer is that the only limit is the imagination.
  
• There is no software available that can remove all spyware or malware because of the techniques that are used to release new variants and new strains of infections into the wild.
  Reinforcements:
  In a recent study by PCworld (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,119572,00.asp) analysts compared 9 of the top spyware scanning applications against each other. Each application was tested on a system infected with common spyware threats, and then compared against each other to see what product detected and removed the most. The top three applications detected 65% to 85% of the spyware on the test system, while all the other application detection rates were well below 56%, and as low as 5%.
  
• Spyware and malware infections can make things like identity just a few mouse clicks away for criminals because of the ability of infections to gather and report personal information about you.
  Reinforcements:
  http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/stats.html
  As if the increase in offline Identity theft in the past year was not enough, Spyware and Malware have helped criminals mine information in the blink of an eye with one single click of a mouse. Online Identity theft and Fraud now leads the way as the method of choice to rip people off. The most upsetting fact of this trend is that while techniques and education are improving to catch and prevent fraud and identity theft, so is the turn around time for criminals to use the information. Most individuals that discover they have been a victim of stolen personal information realize this well after they have already been victimized.
  The Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization, shares these chilling facts about identity theft:
  - 13.3 people become victims of identity theft every minute.
  - It takes an average of 600 hours to fix your credit history after ID theft.
  - Victims face higher interest rates on all types of loans, increased credit card fees, higher insurance premiums, battles with collection agencies, and difficulties finding a job.
  - It can take more than 10 years to clean up your credit after ID theft
  
• Spyware and Malware can slow down your internet connection speed dramatically
  Reinforcements:
  Every piece of information that leaves your computer has to use some of your bandwidth. Heavily infected system can send so much information out at any given time that the availability of your bandwidth for legitimate uses suffers a dramatic loss of maximum data transfer. In some cases, malware and spyware can turn your computer into a zombie that relay things like spam and viruses which uses even more system and bandwidth resources. Take a look at some of the major companies advertising campaigns and you will see how important it is to them that users prevent their systems from becoming infected. A surge in network traffic for an ISP can lose them MILLIONS.
  
• Spyware and Malware take away precious system resources in your computer, making boot times longer and over all performance sluggish.
  Reinforcements:
  This topic is self explanatory. You only have so many resources in your computer to complete tasks. Every time you add another piece of software that requires attention, you are taking away resources from legitimate computer uses.

• A spy Audit survey in 2004 suggests that over 90% of computers are infected with some type of spyware!
  Reinforcements:
  Remember, this is a piece of software that generates these statistics. If you think 90% is a lot, imagine all of the other stuff it is missing! It has been suggested that EVERY online computer has some type of spyware on it. This is particularly true when a computer is used to surf the internet and view websites. The amount of information that can be gathered from cookies alone allow companies to gain valuable information about your surfing habits at your leisurely expense

• Spyware and Malware can infect you when you install certain software on your computer without your knowledge. Screen savers, online games, PC performance applications and even some spyware removal programs can “bundle” spyware and malware into their software.
  Reinforcements:
  Here is a list of bogus spyware apps: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
  
• Many computer users resort to “reformatting” their computer to rid their system of spyware, resulting in complete data loss and hours of valuable time lost to working on their computers
  Reinforcements:
  Time to reformat a system ranges from 1 to 4 hours depending on the method used
  Up to several hours to reinstall applications
  Risking re-infections if not done properly, making worse than before
  In most cases users lose ALL their data
  
• Some variants of spyware and malware can install backdoors to allow hackers complete control over a system
  Reinforcements:
  http://spamlinks.net/stats.htm – This is a HUGE resource showing statistics on the amount of spam floating around on the internet

• Businesses and individuals can spend thousands of dollars in a year on tech support, losing hours, days and even sometimes weeks and STILL have the same problems from the start!
  Reinforcements:
  http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,17240,00.asp – In this article there are facts like this:
  “Of 31 total problems posed to 18 stores, 18 were misdiagnosed or left unresolved. That percentage of wrong responses is slightly higher than in our 1998 results.”

Heads up… M$ has released a patch out of the regular patch cycle.

This may not seem like a big deal, but if I know M$, this wouldn’t be happening if this wasn’t a big deal. Read on…

Microsoft’s urgent security update: What it means | News – Security – CNET News

Earlier today, Microsoft did something unusual. The company made an exception to its normal security processes and issued an “out-of-band” urgent update. The update applied is classified as critical for Windows XP and older versions and is considered important for Windows Vista.

After speaking with Microsoft earlier today, I strongly suggest that users understand the importance of this update and begin emergency patching procedures immediately. While exploits around this Windows vulnerability have been limited thus far, Microsoft concedes that it could be exploited by old-school Internet-based worms a la 2004 and do massive amounts of damage. In addition to patching Windows systems, I also encourage users to install the latest security signatures from endpoint and network security vendors.

I doubt we’ll ever see another blaster worm incident again, but this is still a little scary nonetheless.

To get the patch, visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

I uploaded a video to YouTube about 8 months ago and it’s been a hit. It shows you how to remove viruses and spyware manually, using only free tools and utilities. Here’s part one and part 2. I would appreciate comments and feedback if you found this to be useful.

I invented this technique years ago and shamelessly named it after myself (or my nickname).

Introducing “The Botts Technique” to manually remove any virus or spyware – guaranteed to work!

Video 1 (Part 1) – How to Remove Viruses and Spyware Manually

Video 2 (Part 2) – How to Remove Viruses and Spyware Manually

Please recommend on your favorite social site, and leave comments!

You may notice when you get a brand new PC fresh out of the box it whizzes around like a top; flinging windows here and there, only taking seconds to complete the most complicated tasks.

Then, one day you may start to notice it doesn’t have the zing it once did, and:

• The PC takes longer to start.
• Programs take longer to open.
• Error messages start to pop-up and say you have missing or corrupt files.
• Your screen flickers and your desktop Icons disappear and reappear frequently 
• You recieve error messages that state you need to buy or install software to fix problems in your computer

This is about the time most people go to their CD collection and dig out the reformat or recovery CD. They toss it in the CD drive and minutes later their computer is back to the way it was when they first bought it.  Many people do this and lose ALL their data… this is unnecessary most of the time! It really does pain me to think of how many people go through this process everyday.

These can be Computer Virus Symptoms, and a sign that you have a sick computer. There are several things you can do for free before you go about spending a bunch of money on a technician that may just end up giving you a clean bill of health. The first things you will want to determine are:

• When did this first occur? Perhaps the problems started after you added a new printer or other hardware device. You could try unplugging or uninstaling this first before having a tech come onsite to charge you for an hour of doing this themselves.
• How long have you had the problem? If the problem has existed for a long time you may just need a tune up.  Yes, computer can slow down the longer that you own them – but they don’t get slow because of old age like people, they usually get slow because you have not maintained it properly.
• If you are getting messages, are they trying to sell you something? If so, this is a good indication you have been infected with some type of malware or spyware. in this case, you may want to run a free antivirus scan, and a free spyware scan to see if that will fix the problem.

You can run a free antivirus scan at one of the following sites to determine if in fact your symptoms are actually an indication that you are infected with a virus:

• Trend Micro

  http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

• Panda

  http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

• BitDefender

  http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php

• McAfee

  http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

• RAV

  http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/