Safeguard your privacy

Toolbars - or "Spybars"

2006-11-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

Spybars are in many cases a much more appropriate name for toolbars, because toolbars often contain either adware, spyware or both. Adware is in itself not dangerous, but it can be very annoying, since as the name implies it delivers ads to your PC. Typically these ads appear in the form of pop-ups or pop-unders. Spyware is worse because it spies on you; it monitors surfing habits, keyword searches or even logs keystrokes and proceeds to submit this information to a 3rd party without your knowledge. A toolbar is a tool to help the internet user perform various actions while browsing the web, so it is a perfect place to hide a spyware or adware program.

One way of obtaining the toolbars is simply to download and install them your self. In this case you will often be prompted to click "I Agree" to an "end user license agreement". Personally I almost never read those; I just click "next-next-agree-install" and I think many people do the same. Lots of adware distributed in this way will be described in the license agreement, so the lesson here is to always read it before clicking on the agree-button. A toolbar can also come bundled with a free piece of software, so again you should always read the license agreement, when you install a free program (sometimes there is good reason why it is free). Toolbars can also install themselves silently when you surf certain websites, through pop-ups or activeX controls. All of a sudden a new toolbar appears in your internet browser, even though you know with certainty, that you did not install it. This is cause for alarm.

Below I have listed a few toolbars to illustrate their purpose.

Alibaba Toolbar
This one monitors keyword searches and submits the results to a 3rd party without the user's knowledge. The information can be used to tailor ads to match the searches.

DotCom Toolbar
DCT hijacks your default homepage and your browser settings. This means it sets you browser's startup page to something else. It also reports data back to a 3rd party and generally causes system and connectivity issues.

SearchSprint Toolbar
This is a bad one. You will get it through an axtiveX control when browsing the internet. It starts when a "trojan downloader" named "roimoi" gets downloaded onto your PC (It will be with a misleading name). Repeated pop-ups may be displayed until download is accepted. Once the trojan is installed it proceeds to download and install other components such as SearchSprint. The toolbar hijacks keyword searches and replaces the results with ads from another website. It also steals e-mail addresses and sends them to a 3rd party, enabling them to submit e-mail ads to those addresses.

Xupiter Toolbar
This bad boy has been around for several years and exists now in many versions. This is because Xupiter's programmers have kept updating the code to get around anti spyware/adware updates.The toolbar is typically installed without the user's knowledge, while surfing various websites and through pop-ups or activeX controls.Once Xupiter has installed it self it begins to perform it's devious acts, which include:

- Hijacking the internet browser's start page.
- Monitoring surfing habits and reporting them.
- Displaying pop-up and pop-under ads.
- Silently updating itself.

The Xupiter toolbar has been very difficult to get rid of and doing this manually should not be attempted by a PC novice.

There are many more spy toolbars out there and they all pretty much exhibit the same behavior as the examples above. A toolbar can be a great add-on to your web browser, but you should be very careful when installing one. Take the following precautions:

- Never download a toolbar before you have done a few web searches on it, to determine if it contains spyware/adware.
- Always read the end user license agreement before installing a toolbar.
- Always read the end user license agreement before installing free software.
- Always perform a full system scan with an anti spyware/adware program, if a new toolbar suddenly appears in your browser.

And as always you should make sure you have an anti spyware/adware program installed.

My game runs slow

2006-10-29T02:52:00.000-08:00

Computer hardware is getting faster and faster and those of us who enjoy playing big 3D games often go out and buy high-end gear. So what is wrong when you load up a really performance intensive game such as World Of Warcraft or Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on your new PC and it far from lives up to your expectations ?

Many things can be wrong and you should check that you have the latest drivers and patches. The tech forums will often advise you to look at your taskbar and close any unnecessary applications. In my opinion this shouldn't normally be required if you have a really fast PC. Only if there is an actual conflict between the game and a background application.

This is when you should scan your PC for spyware/adware - hidden background programs that soak up your CPU and memory resources. On a fast PC you most likely won't notice any performance loss before you run a heavy application. And if your new state-of-the-art machine is unprotected, then there is a good chance that spyware is the cause of the missing performance.

Spyware - the no 1 threat to internet users

2006-10-23T03:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had the feeling that your PC is doing something you didn't ask it to do ? Like installing a new toolbar in your internet browser, suddenly showing many more popup ads than it used to or does your PC simply seem to operate slower than when you bought it.
Then there is a very good chance that your PC has become infected with spyware.

Spyware are small programs that are designed to spy on you and relay it's findings to someone else through the internet. The type of information the spyware looks for can be anything from surfing habits to account numbers or passwords and there are many ways it can reach your PC.

The risk of getting spyware today is greater than ever. I believe that any PC, which isn't protected by an anti spyware program, will eventually attract spyware. If I were to scan any unprotected PC I would bet that 9 out of 10 would be infected to some degree.

Not all anti spyware programs are equally effective. Some programs may detect infections where others have failed.

If you do not have any anti spyware installed on your PC, I strongly recommend you to visit my website at http://www.fixmypcnow.net for more information. You will also find a link there, where you can download one of the best and most sophisticated anti spyware tools and try a free scan of your PC. Even if you are already protected, it wont hurt to try out an alternative.
You can also read an article I wrote here.