Parasite software

Other warning signs to look out for include:. There is no magic bullet, no one program that is capable of removing all parasites. But the programs listed here have a good record and should, if kept up-to-date, greatly help in cleaning up systems. Site: www. Begun in , Ad-Aware was the first program to target adware and spyware components. Several major versions later it is still one of the most popular and well-known anti-parasite applications.

Spybot was first released in , during a lull in Ad-Aware updates, with wider targeting criteria including diallers at the time a newly-widespread threat and program usage trace removal. Spybot remains one of the most popular and well-known anti-parasite applications. Site: cwshredder. CWShredder is a specialised removal tool for the CoolWebSearch family of parasites only, created because of the inability of many of the popular anti-parasite tools to deal with some of the many variants around.

SpySubtract performs both quick scans for parasite files installed in the expected places and full scans of all files; slower. Takes a bit of a speed hit though. GIANT AntiSpyware was a relative newcomer, but gained a reputation for being able to deal with some of the newer, trickier to remove parasites. Currently a beta-test version is available. Includes options to protect browser settings from changes. Has a very large database of threats including non-commercial trojans, but perhaps because of this can produce false positives a little more often than some of the others.

Effective when used with care. A larger suite of components including pop-up blocking, file shredding and usage traces removal as well as the anti-parasite features. There is limited control over the anti-parasite part, which removes all suspicious traces found without any user prompting.

Networked version available. Bazooka is a parasite detector: a scanner-only package that links back to an online guide when something is detected; it does not attempt to remove what it finds. A general-purpose tool to detect browser hijackers and other programs set to run on startup. WinPatrol is a system monitor. This has the effect of hobbling some parasites if they are installed, and preventing many others from loading by ActiveX drive-by-download in Internet Explorer.

Many parasites spread using security issues in Internet Explorer, and primarily affect usage of IE. Other browsers can reduce this risk. Filtering proxies can stop block web-based attacks by filtering web content for malicious scripting and various other potentially unwanted content. Examples: Proxomitron , Privoxy.

Another simple way to block access to some known-bad sites is by putting them in the Hosts file with a bogus address, so the real server is never contacted. Suppliers of filtering Hosts files aimed at adverts in general : Mike Burgess , hpguru , Dan Pollock. IE users can also use a less complete kind of hostname-based filtering by putting suspicious hosts in the Restricted Sites Zone: content can still be downloaded from blocked sites but web pages from them will be run without scripting or ActiveX.

Another breed of malicious software is targeted by anti-trojan software. Much less widespread than parasites, but potentially at least as damaging, remote access trojans give direct control of the computer to a single attacker. Anti-trojan software targets these threats somewhat more comprehensively than plain anti-virus software. BrowserSpy shows what information your web browser can leak during browsing.

AuditMyPC offers an online port scanner. Prevention how to stay parasite-free. Cures reputable anti-parasite software.

Database of known parasites. About this site disclaimers, copyright, contact. How it could have happened, and how to prevent it happening again DOX desk provides a JavaScript program that can run from a web page and detect some kinds of parasite; you can see its results at the top of this page.

Putting the script on your own web pages Database of all parasite information There are also programs available that can in many cases remove the parasites automatically; they can also detect many more types of threat that the script here cannot for tedious technical reasons. Recommended anti-parasite software Whilst there are many sites trying to mislead people into buying questionable anti-parasite software, there are also many good resources for information and discussion of parasites, spyware and related issues.

Other useful sites Finally, miscellaneous information about this site: Disclaimers, corrections, contact details, copyright, licensing