Spyware Blockers

Spyware is making headlines once again, this time in connection with the attempted theft of more than $300 million dollars. That’s right. Two men were convicted in a British court of trying to steal more than £229 million (USD$323 million) from Sumitomo Mitsui bank. Most bank robbers use a mask or gun when they do their work, but for these gentlemen, their weapon of choice was spyware.

The court heard testimony about a complex plot hatched by “Lord” Hugh Rodley and Durrington businessman David Nash, to steal hundreds of millions of pounds from the Japan-based Sumitomo Mitsu bank in London. An unidentified insider provided the men with late-night access to the corporate offices of the bank.

While they were in the bank, the would-be thieves loaded spyware onto office computers. The spyware – actually a keylogger – captured user names, passwords and other vital information the thieves planned to use to order the transfer of funds in £12.5 million increments (USD$17.6 million) to other accounts around the world.

The spyware provided the thieves with access to accounts belonging to Toshiba, Nomura, and Sumitomo Chemical, some of Japan’s largest corporations. The money transfers were foiled only due to idiosyncrasies in the process of international money transfers. These “field logging errors” prevented the theft and eventually led back to the thieves themselves.

$300 Million Is A Lot To Lose

In this case, the thieves were caught and convicted, but the majority of spyware is never discovered … or at least not discovered in time to prevent serious damage from being done. How could spyware be loaded onto the bank’s computers and operate without detection? Simple. The bank didn’t have Spyware Doctor installed on its computer system.

Spyware Doctor is one of the world’s most trusted names in spyware detection and removal. Millions of users have downloaded Spyware Doctor and trust it to locate and disable spyware, and prevent new infections before they can do any damage.

Your personal computer isn’t likely to be the key to $300 million, but your money is yours, and it should stay that way. Spwyare Doctor protects your computer from even the nastiest spyware infections. It’s database is updated constantly, so you’re protected from even the latest spyware threats.

Spyware Doctor is the most popular, cost-effective spyware protection you can buy today. A single license of Spyware Doctor will protect up to three computers at once. If you want to protect your computer, choose the best! Choose Spyware Doctor!

Photo Credit: M. Brand

Spyware Protection Plus is making the rounds. It’s not really spyware protection; it’s another rogue anti-spyware program that makes its bones by tricking infected users into buying useless anti-spyware software.

Once installed, Spyware Protection Plus will run a “spyware scan” each time the user starts the infected computer. The scan will trigger countless pop-up windows that warn of “infections” or security problems discovered on the infected computer. Of course, aside from the Spyware Protection Plus infection, there may be nothing wrong with the computer.

Some users have reported that the Spyware Protection Plus infection is also accompanied by other Trojans and fake anti-malware software. The purpose of the software is to trick an unsuspecting user into buying the “full” version of the software, which is as useless as the freebie version is.

How Can You Tell Fake Anti-Spyware From Real Anti-Spyware?

Spyware Protection Plus isn’t the first rogue spyware program. There are loads of them. But how can you tell the difference between real, effective spyware and their scamware cousins? Here are some things to keep in mind.

There are legitimate software products that provide free spyware scans but don’t remove the offending product. That, by itself, is no indication that the anti-spyware tool you have is fake. A really good indication that you’re dealing with fake spyware is that it begins to run on your computer without you having knowingly installed it. Anything that loads itself is suspect.

“Reports” may not provide much useful information. For example, the “spyware remover” may tell you that it found a specific number of malware programs, but doesn’t tell you which ones. Or it may find “infected files” on your computer, but a check of the directory shows that the suspect files have zero-byte file sizes. It may also identify .exe files that are “malware” but doesn’t identify any corresponding .dll files.

The warning windows may or may not look convincing. They’re often patterned after real anti-spyware products. Look for spelling errors, rough grammar or warnings that “Windows” has detected spyware and will download a spyware removal tool for you. The alert window may not give a “cancel” option, or the cancel option does exactly the same thing as the “OK” option. Your Internet connection may slow to an agonizing pace, or your computer hard drive may be active when it shouldn’t be.

Do Your Research

If you receive security warnings that you suspect are fake, do a little research before you agree to purchase anything. Warnings are often high-pressure sales tactics and urge you to purchase a remedy immediately. Note the wording on the warnings and see if you can find a match among the many known rogue anti-spyware programs. You can also use the Task Manager to disable the rogue program temporarily. While you’re doing research, take a look at XoftSpy SE from Spywareblockers.org.

XoftSpy SE can locate and disable spyware. It removes the offending programs from your computer and makes sure that you don’t get infected again. Don’t take chances with unknown spyware removers, or risk being infected with multiple malware programs. Get XoftSpy SE from Spywareblockers.org for real protection against spyware.

Photo Credit: Sophie

Spyware is among the most serious threats that computer users face today. In most cases, spyware is more than an annoyance or a nuisance. It is a pathway to more dangerous kinds of malware infections, including root kits, keystroke loggers, and “silent observers” that report your browsing habits, site visits and account information to a third party.

Spyware Protect 2009 Is Anything But

A current spyware threat is Spyware Protect 2009. This unfortunate piece of rogue anti-spyware malware masquerades as spyware protection. Instead, it’s the exact opposite and opens doors to a number of malware infections that will slow your computer down and make your browsing and Internet usage unsafe.

What exactly do you risk with a Spyware Protect 2009 infection? The purpose of the product is to scare you into purchasing useless spyware removal software. The program loads nearly three dozen executable files, fake executables and zero-byte files onto your computer. The program then “detects” these files and issues security warnings designed to scare you into purchasing the product. The alerts indicate that your computer is being attacked remotely, or that Windows has detected a malware infection. Spyware Protect 2009 won’t “remove” these files until you’ve paid for the product download.

In reality, the fake malware files are just that – fake. They will cause no harm to your computer, but simply deleting the files won’t get rid of the infection. These files will be recreated each time the computer is turned on, and you’ll be inundated with fake alert messages. You need competent spyware removal software to eliminate this nuisance, its associated files and repair the registry for your computer.

XoftSpy SE Offers Real Spyware Protection

XoftSpy SE is an excellent tool to identify malware and spyware threats on your computer, remove them and clean up the mess they leave behind. These programs often leave registry entries that change the way your computer behaves, and slows the performance of your computer noticeably.

XoftSpy SE can eliminate thousands of spyware threats and put the protection in place you need to browse the Internet safely. XoftSpy SE uses a database of literally hundreds of thousands of known spyware, adware and malware programs and their variants.

XoftSpy SE can do this and more. With real spyware protection, you can free yourself of these threats and scams. XoftSpy SE detects and removes even the worst malware: adware, pop-up generators, Trojans, spyware, keyloggers and hijackers that redirect your browser to infected sites. You control the frequency with which XoftSpy SE scans your computer for new infections, and the XoftSpy SE database, one of the largest available, is updated constantly. That means your protection is also updated constantly.

Don’t take chances with your spyware protection. Get real protection you can trust. Get XoftSpy SE from Sywareblockers.org.

Photo Credit: Christopher Boyd

If your philosophy on spyware is that it is a mere annoyance, or that it’s a nuisance but it isn’t particularly dangerous, you’re mistaken. Spyware is one of the primary tools that thieves use to steal your identity. In fact, it accounts for nearly half of the known cases of identity theft each year.

Currently, identity theft costs nearly $57 billion each year. While this doesn’t normally come out of the pockets of the victims of identity theft, the cost of this fraud is passed along to all consumers through higher interest rates on credit purchases and higher transaction fees.

Common Routes To Identity Theft

Eliminating the most common routes to identity theft (phishing and spyware) could reduce the cost of consumer fraud by nearly 100 percent. Other than being vigilant and savvy, there’s not much that can be done to stop phishing. Phishing is an attack that relies on “social engineering.” These attacks usually attempt to gain the trust of an individual, either through legitimate-looking email or other schemes that involve receiving email from a trusted source.

Spyware, on the other hand, is absolutely treatable. Like phishing, spyware attacks require the user to download the offending software. Unlike phishing, however, more sophisticated spyware can download itself if the user visits an infected Web site or clicks on a link that redirects the user to a malicious site. Free software can be infected with spyware as well, and altered copies of legitimate software programs can also deliver a spyware payload.

Anti-Spyware Protection Is Key

With spyware, you never know where the next attack will come from. Where one attack fails, another might succeed. The battle against spyware is continuous and exhausting. To protect your computer and your personal information, you need to load anti-spyware software on your computer. Like anti-virus software, anti-spyware/anti-malware software is updated regularly. As new infections are discovered, the malware definitions are updated to help keep your computer safe from the latest threats.

With up-to-date spyware protection loaded on your computer, you reduce the chance that you or someone in your household will become a victim of a spyware infection. You can protect your personal data, your account information, access codes and passwords. You can also be sure that as new threats arise, your anti-spyware software will be able to identify and disable them before they can do any real damage to your computer.

Still don’t think that anti-spyware software is necessary? Maybe this will change your mind. While consumers aren’t often held responsible for unauthorized charges on their credit cards, experts estimates that it costs the average consumer about $1,200 and 40 hours of time to clean up a credit report that has been damaged as the result of identity theft. How much is 40 hours of your time worth?

Photo Credit: Steve Woods

Auctiva.com, a popular Web site that distributes tools for eBay online auctions became infected with a Trojan last week. As visitors came to the sites, their PCs were infected with the Trojan. At one point, Google’s anti-malware detection services picked up the infection and began warning visitors that the site had been compromised.
According to Auctiva.com, the malware originated in China and was designed to take advantage of a known flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Some users were reporting multiple malware infections after having been hit with the initial Trojan. The site has since cleaned up and patched its servers, and suggests that users load anti-virus and anti-malware protection on their computers, and update their operating systems to include all of the latest security patches.

Users Ignore Warnings

Some users reported getting infected even after reading Google’s warnings about possible malware on the site. The episode provides an important lesson: even when infected sites are detected and warnings are issued, users may ignore all of the information they’re being given and risk a visit to the site anyway.
This is especially difficult to prevent when the site is one that users are familiar with. Users don’t recognize that even their favorite sites can be the subjects of a malware attack. Simply because the site didn’t pose a danger yesterday doesn’t mean that the site is still clean today.

Anti-Malware Protection You Can Trust

One way to ensure that your computer is protected is to load proven anti-spyware/anti-malware protection and keep it up to date. XoftSpy SE from SpywareBlockers.org can provide you with round-the-clock protection against spyware, malware, adware, Trojans, keyloggers and other threats that can compromise the safety of your private information and browsing habits, and can impair the performance of your computer.
XoftSpy SE offers real protection against literally hundreds of thousands of malware threats. Even when you visit an infected site or download infected software, XoftSpy SE can detect the malware and prevent it from harming your computer. Your protection is always up-to-date with XoftSpy SE, and you can be sure that your computer gets the protection it needs from thousands of threats and their numerous variants every time you start your computer.
XoftSpy SE from Spywareblockers.org is available for a low annual fee. You simply load the software on your computer and let XoftSpy SE do the rest. It will detect and remove malware, clean the registry and prevent new infections from occurring. If you want real protection, you need XoftSpy SE.
Photo Credit: Mark Anderson