Saturday, September 04, 2004

Hey, can anyone tell me just what these unintentionally highlighted words linking to some search engine that have popped up all over the place within the past two days are all about? Not only do they appear on my blog but on others, not to mention elsewhere such as in listings on ebay, dogpile and the like. Certain words like "television," "love" and "music" seem to be the ones getting the special treatment, and frankly it is annoying (not to mention frightening especially since my blog has begun acting...strangely as of late with a new banner sometimes popping up plus a few new comments posted in June and July suddenly appearing?!?!?! Hope this ain't some new virus sent over by some enemy of mine. Any info help etc. is appreciated.

Posted by Christopher Stigliano at 2:07 PM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you have an ad-ware virus on your computer. The look for key words in text on your screen and link them to commercial sites. They also gather data on which sites you are visiting and send it to marketing companies without your knowledge. It was probably hiden in something you downloaded.
There are tools to remove this kind of virus, you should be able to find some by looking on google. Sorry I can't be more specific, I know there is a site all about ad-ware which has software to scan your hard drive and remove any ad-ware viruses it finds, I just can't remember the URL !
Hope that helps.

5:11 PM
Jim H said...

I assume you are using Windows. Anonymous is probably right. Sounds like malware (otherwise known as spyware or adware). Best thing to do is 1) don't use Internet Explorer for most things - download Netscape or Mozilla or Opera - most spyware attacks vulnerabilities in Explorer; 2) that said, if you are using Windows XP, you should use Internet Explorer for one thing -- downloading new updates - or put the automatic updates feature on - if you are using other Windows variants you also need to check for new updates from Microsoft. to do that you go to the Tools pulldown menu and select "Windows Update"; 3) You should immediately download, install and regularily use some spyware killers such as Spybot Search and Destroy (http://security.kolla.de/) and Ad-Aware 6.0 (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/) - in order to be effective, these tools should be used at least once a week to clear the spyware off your 'puter; Ad-Aware has a payfor feature to "watch" and alert you to suspicous websites - spybot has an "Immunize" feature that blocks some of the more popular spywares and 4) if you don't have an anti-virus software you should get it. Either buy Norton or download AVG for free (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php). It is not recommended that you use both. Microsoft's new Service Pack claims that it does anti-virus but I don't trust it yet, if ever.

If none of that works, you may need to do get a special tool to deal with the spyware or follow some very detailed instructions. Contact me and I might be able to help -- or go to the place you bought the computer and find a nerd. Or call up microsoft since it's their damn software that has the vulnerabilities that are being attacked (although they'll probably tell you to go to hell, I've sweet-talked my way into some technical support for what its worth).

Welcome to windows, the most attacked platform in the world -- you may want to try Apple in the future (I have to use Windows because it is what my customers use).

10:13 PM

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