[Andy Trish]

yesterday I was approached by 2 new customers who were both suffering from bank fraud. turns out there PCs were infected with spyware.

remember, everything you do on a PC can be seen by someone somewhere else if you don't protect yourself.

[SBP]

What do you recommend ?

[Chubster]

A free one please

[dragonfly]

I run Spybot regularly, but I'd be interested in alternatives.

[Alvin]

Ad-aware. http://lavasoft.com/

Alvin

[Paragon]

My machine has picked up malware on a bank holiday
Pretty much ruined my day off

Don't rely on your antivirus picking up all spyware/malware (lots do though).
I now have to clear this trojan-backdoor and re-enable the screensaver and desktop image before I can do anything on that machine.
I believe it was picked up from a website after one of my older kids used the machine..

[technohead]

spyware removers such as spybot search and destroy are good for detecting spyware/malware, however only once they are on your computer. For better protection get yourself a good spam filter on your email and make sure your have a decent firewall with the settings configured accordingly.

[Paragon]

Got a spare copy of Kaspersky which is now installed and running a scan, so far its found and removed 9 problem files/programs.
Great!
Except its been running the full scan for nearly 3 days and done less than 50000 files, there are probably about another 170000 more files to go
Is this normal??

The infection also removed the control panel settings pages for screensaver and desktop, any ideas how I get these back?
Also unable to use Outlook, locks up when I try to open any e-mails...
If I try to use a search engine then it hijacks the page I've found and redirects me to somewhere else

Any help or ideas appreciated

[Lions Den Computers]

I regularly am asked what my personal setup for security is - many of my customers don't know which way to go!

This would be a standard list for an XP machine.

Use a cable / ADSL router to connect to the internet. Even if no-one else needs access in your home and you have only one pc.

Make sure the operating system has all current updates and patches. For XP this would include Service Pack 3.

AVG Free Edition. Good solid basic protection for virus related threats.

SPYBOT S&D. Update once a week and immunise after updating.

Adaware 2008. Update once a week and scan afterwards.

CCleaner. A more advanced cleaning program than Disk Cleanup which comes with Windows. It will clear a huge amount of rubbish from your system safely.

Use an email junk / spam filter. Microsoft Outlook has one built in which will take care of most rubbish. I receive between 2500-4000 spam mails a week but almost all of those are sent straight to junk. Just remember to 'empty' the junk folder regularly.

That would be essentially it with a few small differences for Vista. All the programs above are available free. I never pay a penny for security software - as long as you're not inviting nasties onto your system (by surfing for pron) you should be fine.

You'll also notice that none of these programs will entail a performance hit - unlike many other 'complete' packages which drag your system down ala Norton, McAfee etc. You've worked hard for your money - don't throw it away!

[HuggyBear]

Originally Posted by Lions Den Computers

You'll also notice that none of these programs will entail a performance hit - unlike many other 'complete' packages which drag your system down ala Norton, McAfee etc. You've worked hard for your money - don't throw it away!

I have noticed that the new AVG 8 can often cause your PC to lag up. Possibly a bug in the engine? And no, it's not scanning fo files - I turn daily scanning off; real-time scanning is good enough for me