Slashdot Mirror
Anti-Spyware Products Don't Live Up to Promises
John Wells writes "In the December, 2004 issue of PC World, the author of an article titled Poor Defenders concludes that most commercial anti-spyware software is ineffective. In tests using a fresh install of XP and 6 typical spyware infections the commercial software failed to stack up against freeware competitor Spybot Search and Destroy. Four out of seven commercial products failed to remove any of the infections. One product even installed 57 spyware files itself! Conclusion: Use freeware products like Spybot and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal."
So where does this guy get his "paid" spyware removal applications? Clicking on popups? Oh... wait...
many of these utilities use aggressive marketing tactics in pop-up ads, spam, and keyword ads appearing alongside Google search results
Though I suppose this is how they sucker a lot of people and some people expect results if they pay for a utility, I would probably do at least a LITTLE research before paying for any app like that. The thing is, I would hardly consider this "most commercial anti-spyware software." So as far as this "test," he might as well do an article about Virtual Bouncer and how it removed his parasites for him.
Why didn't he test something like Spy Sweeper or Giant AntiSpyware? Those are paid ones that I would probably recommend if someone did want to pay for a program. At least that way, people would see that not ALL commerical products are crap - it does almost sound like that.
But really, Spybot isn't even cutting it anymore, IMO. AdAware is still doing well, but I've actually been more impressed with the other two I mentioned above - worth a look if you haven't checked them out - both have free trials that you would have no problems doing a removal with.
Nathan Shafer, answering our e-mail message to Spyware Stormer, challenged our test methodology. Shafer wrote that Spyware Stormer detects "over 20,000 variants of spyware and adware," and that its performance with the six applications we chose was therefore "hardly representative in any way."
They are absolutely correct here although there are only four programs you should ever install for combating spyware: Adaware, SpyBot S&D, SpywareBlaster, and a good software firewall package (preferably one that tells you when something is trying to connect out to the Internet like ZoneAlarm). You need to keep these programs updated on a regular basis and you need to make sure that they run regularly. Unfortunately only SpyBot S&D runs w/o user intervention if you set it up to do so.
SpyBot, while being a great program, isn't updated nearly as often as AdAware and doesn't find all those pesky cookies that AdAware does. SpywareBlaster is good for keeping those pesky cookies from getting onto your machine in the first place.
We were unable to reach NoAdware, but the Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York reported that it had received 22 complaints about the company, which is not a member of the BBB, by early October. Network Dynamics has a clean record as a member of Southern California's BBB. The BBB's complaint database contained no record of complaints for the remainder of the companies whose products we tested.
The BBB has fallen into worthlessness in recent years (I don't know about years passed). They have little to no pull and sometimes they even go so far as to ignore complaints against their companies. I would ignore any comments in regards to BBB related businesses.
Basically you need to research what you are installing on your machine. That means using google, word of mouth, and your own deep digging before you put any "cleaning" program on your machine. You also need to do some research into making sure that you are using what you can to combat Spyware.
Sadly, most people out there don't know, care, or care to know. That's why they end up w/it in the first place. If people DID care about what they were installing on their computer AND took the time to do a quick google search they would find out exactly what they need to know.
It has gotten to the point where I seriously believe that MSFT is doing this on purpose in order to show the public why they NEED to use "protected computing".
hijackThis seems to find all the stuff that others leave behind, and it's free (as in beer). Almost everybody I know uses it too.
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
install firefox
???
profit
really if you are still using IE you are bringing it on yourself, i loved IE, but it has become garbage
That convinces your little sister she doesn't need a barbie IE brower theme or a cursor that looks like a puppy dog. Hold that, I want a program that turns the cursor into a weapon of some fashion that I may use to smite that damend purple monkey on my computer. That's worth my website traffic being shipped of to who knows where in itself.
-or so you'd think
I'm curious if there are comparable-quality Freeware/Shareware anti-virus products available? I don't mind paying for a product, but don't like having the product cease to function unless more money is extorted out of me in perpetuity. I'm sick and tired of Symantec shaking me down for subscription updates, and subsequent versions of their products becoming more bloated and inefficient.
The fundamental difference between freeware and proprietry anti-malware software is that the freeware are doing it for the love of the game, or in this case their hatred for spyware in all its daemonic forms.
Commerical anti-spyware vendors on the other hand are in in for the $$$ and that means they are susseptable to temptation, i.e allow malwarez who give them money to get through, use malwarez tactics to get money and do things other than what it says on the tin while users aren't looking.(read, kazaa)
I suppose commerical vendors are just more idealogically close to the spammers, who are also in it for the money.
In any case, if you need an 'infrastructural' type software program, your nearly always better off going FOSS anyway. That's my 2c.
May the Maths Be with you!
The open source community really needs to rally behind this, I think.
I'd love to see a project that uses community involvment to flag projects and websites as "phishing" or "spyware" related.
It could be integrated into open source projects such as Firefox and Thunderbird so you could be assured that after a few people in the community confirmed that a particular URL or even IP was "phishing" or "spyware" related, it would be disabled in the browser or email client without a blood sample and double confirmation.
I, for one, am sick of helping other people clean their computers of spyware. Many of them become so bogged down they are unusable.
Lose Weight and Feel Great with Isagenix
There are some systemic problems with Windows, particularly the Windows/IE combination, that allow spyware to flourish -- the lack of a way for a common user to get a good idea what's running on their system besides MS-installed OS files, for example, or the multitude of places that auto-starting spyware can hide its startup away from the user's notice. But in the end the people who have spyware problems are almost universally the people who clicked on a link from an unknown source that promised them something cool (or more often than not, something astonishingly lame by more educated users' standards..) If your momand other users like her could be trained not to click on "Click here to install our FREE animated weather-forecasting dancing baby!" when she doesn't know anything about the source of the offer, 90% of the problem would go away overnight.
Could we please all help our 'friend' in promoting his selling of spyware dll usage?
The domain name is:
LOCALNRD.COM
The address is this:
Thinking Media LP
275 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Or please give a call to show your support for spyware and your desire to do business with them.
1(866)839-6164
Thanks for helping the cause!!!!