Potentially Dangerous Popup Ad @ WA Forums

thanks for the heads up R32VW

 

I have not noticed any pop-ups at all on this site, and my pop-up blocker allows all pop up windows from the domain.

 

No Pop-ups Have Ever Run On Wa !!!

WirelessAdvisor.com does NOT and has never run ANY kind of pop-up ads.

These pop-ups are coming from some other source on your computer or previously visited sites.

JFB

 

Re: No Pop-ups Have Ever Run On Wa !!!

That's what I thought but I wanted you to be the one to confirm that.

 

No pop ups here and I don't have any pop up blocker at work since it's considered unauthorized software.

R32VW,

You should run Ad Aware or Spybot S&D.

 

Yep...R32 sounds like you are being "spyed on"

Do you have Kazaa or other music sharing programs? Usually these things are loaded with spyware and adware.

 

^ If you do use KaZaA... get rid of it. Then get rid of your Spyware and Adware. After that, if you need KaZaA still, get KaZaA Lite. I tried it one time... spyware and adware free plus downloads are faster with the "cheat" option to make your participation level at 1000. I stopped using it because I just started buying my music at iTunes.

 

I run Google Toolbar here and at home (at work it's part of the standard PC image) and it has never blocked anything from this site...

 

The google toolbar lets you know when it has blocked a pop-up. I think Z is saying that google has never alerted that it blocked a pop-up on WA. That makes sense, because as I said before...

Since it opened in 1998, WirelessAdvisor.com has NEVER served a single pop-up of any kind on any part of the site!

Joe

 

sometimes opening certain things like Smilies list and other windows from time to time I will get blocked so I turn off the pop blocker and get what I want.

 

Why not just switch to Firefox? No popups or spyware ever. One, it has an integrated popup blocker... and two, it doesn't support activex, so can't be hit with those malicious downloads a lot of sites try to foist on you. I switched way back when it was 0.7 and very very seldom use IE anymore except for those few stupid pages that aren't standards-compliant and don't display properly in Firefox. WA has never once caused an issue in Firefox or even Opera. Apparently we have a webmaster here who actually gives a flip about standards compliance. :biggrin:

 

Unistalling Kazaa will not remove the spyware as the two programs are installed seperately. The spyware is called GATOR. You have to uninstall gator seperately and even then, parts of the program will still be embeded in your OS and you will have to run Spybot AND Adaware AFTER you uninstall GATOR. (note: if you try to be smart and unstall GATOR and then try to run Kazaa, kazaa will not function.... also Kazaa Lite installs a SIMULATION of GATOR that tricks Kazaa into thinking that GATOR is installed, so after you completely removed the orgional kazaa and GATOR and installed Kazaa lite, you will have to tell spybot and adaware to ignore the new fake 'GATOR'.)

Also be sure to keep the defintions up to date with Spybot and Adaware.

I use Norton Firewall 2003 and that has an excellent popup blocker.

Other programs that have spyware: Weatherbug, Desktop Girls, Hotbar and pritty much any other program that offers you 'free' web baised service......

 

First you should get an Anti-Virus. You may have a Virus which you think is a Spyware.
McAfee AntiVirus also scans for Malicious Programs like spyware.

 

If you are getting pop-ups on the WA forums, I can bet that you are also getting them on other sites. Some sophisticated spyware will only put pop-ups on sites that are frequented, but as best I know there were only a few programs that would be site-specific.

I agree with what has been said above, your computer itself has been infected and that is what's causing the pop-ups here at WA.

The only real way to prevent these kinds of programs from infecting your computer is to be careful what sites you visit, what you download and don't install any file sharing programs. Problem with that strategy is when the computer is used by more than one user.

 

From i heard some could even be using Norton Technology that's why Norton cannot detect them.
And some popup Blocker are THE SPYWARE Programs themselves.

The only popup blocker i have is Google and No Spyware Scanner but i don't get these Hijacker programs.

In your case you already have installed them, and have to use a different Anti-Virus program. If it can hide itself from Norton DOES NOT MEAN you don't have them. Not all Anti-Virus program are the same.

I think the Restore Option in XP should be turned off too, otherwise it come back once it's rebooted.

 

Deadliest Threats

About 60 percent of all the malicious threats tracked by AVERT are what McAfee calls Potentially Unwanted Programs, giving customers the chance to decide whether they want to keep the software.
These include
adware and spyware,
which may even be legitimate programs but end up on a system without the user's knowing consent, Gullotto says. Reports of such programs are increasing both because the software is growing more prevalent and because McAfee has added more reporting capabilities for it, he adds.


Here are McAfee's top ten threats of the year so far:


Here are McAfee's top ten threats of the year so far:

Exploit-MhtRedir.gen (also known as Download.Ject or Scob)
VBS/Psyme
Adware-Gator
Adware-180Solutions
Adware-Cydoor
Adware-BetterInet
W32/Netsky.d@MM
W32/Netsky.p@MM
W32/Netsky.q@MM
W32/Mydoom.a@MM
Trojans Multiply

The Exploit-MhtRedir.gen attack uses compromised Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Web servers to distribute Trojan horse programs. Using two vulnerabilities in Windows and Internet Explorer, it silently runs the malicious code distributed from the IIS servers on machines that visit the compromised sites, redirecting the customers to Web sites controlled by hackers and downloading a Trojan horse program that captures keystrokes and personal data.


The only defense against the attack is in Windows XP (news - web sites) Service Pack 2, not available in final form until next month, and numerous Web servers may still be compromised, Gullotto said.


"While it wasn't significant in prevalence, the significance today is that it's used in multiple cases, and there's still no patch for it," Gullotto said.


VBS/Psyme is a Trojan horse that exploits a vulnerability in Internet Explorer and overwrites local files on the user's system.

Netsky Vs. Bagle

Netsky, which first appeared in February, comes as an attachment to an e-mail message and installs itself on Windows PCs when the attachment is opened. It also tries to exploit a long-patched Microsoft hole that enables file attachments launch automatically when an e-mail message is read. The virus combs the machine's hard drive, harvesting e-mail addresses from a variety of file types, then spreads itself further. The Bagle worm and its variants, whose creators apparently carried on a war of words with the Netsky authors in hidden text inside virus code, were edged off the list because Netsky spread itself more effectively, Gullotto says.


MyDoom is included both because it was the most prevalent threat in the period and because it used a new type of e-mail message to cause users to open up its attachment. MyDoom uses subject lines such as "delivery failed" and spoofed sender addresses such as "postmaster," "Post Office" and "MAILER-DAEMON" that make the e-mail resemble a rejected message.


The total number of threats has grown over the past three years, according to Gullotto. In just the first quarter of this year, more than 21 viruses reached McAfee's "medium" rating or higher, compared with 20 in all of 2003. McAfee has added 400 to 500 new threats to its database each month this year, compared with 300 to 400 per month in 2003 and 200 to 300 per month in 2002, Gullotto says. Meanwhile, the company estimates 50 new threats are appearing daily on the Internet, and some are never reported to McAfee.


Another large and growing threat is phishing attacks, which use spoofed e-mail addresses and fake Web sites to trick users into divulging sensitive information, according to McAfee.

 

I use AVG, and it works great as a virus scanner.

Sometimes I think that the pop-up apps are a step ahead of the programs designed to detect and delete them. One of my friends had a computer that constantly got pop-ups on just about every site he visited, including Google and Yahoo to name a few..Both of his spyware programs said his computer was fine.

 

Between AVG, Spybot S & D, Adaware, Sygate personal firewall and firefox I haven't seen a popup in months.

 

Definately by Active X scrippting. Like I said, Firefox kills popups, I haven't seen one since I started using it.