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Spyware, Malware, Nasty Browser Hijacks and Root Kits (or how I spent last Tuesday disinfecting my computer)

My name is Matt Divens and I am, by trade, a systems engineer in the storage industry for the Quantum Corporation. That being said, this blog has nothing to do with storage.

Being in this industry means that I spend roughly half of my time awake every day connected, in some way, to the internet. Most of this time is spent in emails, producing various outputs for my job and data mining on the internet. What does that mean? Why do you care? Well, let me explain just a bit more.

My love of tech creates in me a very serious inner struggle since I believe firmly that you get what you pay for, but am a huge do-it-yourself fan. I love GPL and freeware and enjoy sticking it to the man any time I can by using (and supporting on many occasions) free use software for various needs. That being said, let’s take a look at my day last Tuesday.

8:00am - wake up, breakfast, read email
8:30am - open email from a friend recommending a certain freeware program
8:45am - download said program and double click
8:45am - 3:00pm - Spend all day trying to rid my computer of such terrible adware, spyware, and malware nasties that I have never known.

You get the picture right? I go to install some freeware, it turns out to be a huge lump of pure-evil, prepackaged spyware and malware. I try to relax and run both of my 'other' freeware programs to get rid of these nasties. Both programs help, but do not remove everything and I find that I am still plagued by pop-ups and a generally slow PC. So...I started scouring the web for reviews and recommendations of paid spyware removal programs. Finding one that I thought would be the most useful; I download the tool, pay the basic subscription price and run the software.

The results?

Go figure, it cleaned out all of the problems and I am back up and running at full speed. (Conspiracy theorists speak up now.)

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OK, the paid program fixed the problem. Why? Was it because it had a superior algorithm, better GUI, larger known-issues database than the freeware programs? Possibly, yes, but it may just have been a luck thing. What I can say is that this program makes money through subscriptions and may possibly have had more resources to throw at the battle against these nasties that I was trying to get rid of.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to stop supporting freeware and run to my local store to replace all of my smaller software packages with pricey ones off the shelf. Many of my freeware programs still work fine, if not better than ones that require me shelling out more money. What I ‘am’ going to do is curb my enthusiasm a bit and do some more research before deciding to entrust process X to any Joe Schmo that thinks he can write a .exe to do what I need it to do. Yes, this sounds obvious and easy. But, like curling, it’s a lot harder to do than it looks.

And so, I again learn this lesson in my life of tech. There is always a tightrope walk between saving money upfront and saving money in the long run. Utilizing either may or may not get you to the other side unscathed. The answer lies in the research and in following the advice of others who can share from their own experience and expertise.

Emboldened by this fresh eureka I throw all caution to the wind, embrace the power of my ADHD, I shout my ‘new’ war cry - Hooray for for-profit software companies!! AND VIVA GPL and freeware too!!

Now, where was that all-in-one graphics conversion, slideshow maker, espresso machine freeware program??

Click-click

Matt “I’ll-never-learn” Divens

Posted by Matt Divens on December 1, 2006 12:00 AM | Share This Blog! |

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