I've used ad-aware myself on many machines both in the lab I am a sysadmin for, as well as at home.
It does quite a good job at finding most of the common spyware programs. You'd be amazed how much can be loaded on your machine without you realizing it. I've yet to run into a negative side effect from running it, but it includes provisions for making backup copies of registry entries, etc to allow you to return software incase a piece of software was misidentified as spyware. Bruce Orcutt Alltel Communications-IT/ ILAB (330) 963-1739 (phone) (330) 890-0469 (pager) (330) 388-7585 (off-hours cell) -----Original Message----- From: Jebb Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 12:43 PM To: Carere, Courtney Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Adware, spyware, and trojans Courtney, One program I am aware of to remove adware and spyware is ad-aware by lavasoft http://www.lavasoftusa.com. Has any body used this? Jebb On Fri, 2002-12-06 at 16:48, Carere, Courtney wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Upon reading "The Art of Deception" by Kevin Mitnick yesterday (an > excellent book, by the way), he writes that most antivirus software > does not detect spyware, which was a shock to me. Spyware seems to > be defined as software that logs keystrokes, screenshots, user > actions, etc. I have a couple of questions: > > 1. What's the distinction between spyware, adware, and trojan > software? (My antivirus software says it protects against Trojans, > and I've seen programs like SubSeven in its log files.) > > 2. Is there any good software that detects and removes spyware, > ideally controlled and updated continuously from a central server? > > Thanks! > > - - Courtney Carere > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: PGP 7.0.4 > > iQA/AwUBPfDTHHcM/5zG0KHEEQIcrACg73VSeTkX/ecvtX+HOWnFNCVNsUUAoMqs > n4t8pKXIbtMIQaMiwRhLW/gN > =4uWy > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ============================================================= Jebb Stewart NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory GPS-IPW Project -- <http://www.gpsmet.noaa.gov/> 303-497-6832 (Voice) NOAA, R/FS3 303-497-6014 (Fax) 325 Broadway 720-272-2541 (Cell/Page) Boulder, CO 80305-3328 ==============================================================
