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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

How can you join our fight against Spam, Spyware, and Viruses?


Does your computer have a mind of its own?  If your computer displays any of the following symptoms, it may be infected with spyware, adware or trojans,: 

Is your computer running very slow? 
Are e-mails being sent without your knowledge and you’re getting a lot of bounced back emails. 
Does your system crash a lot?
Do you have advertising pop-ups appearing out of nowhere?
Do you receive Spam from places that you have not been? 
Are your CD drives opening and shutting or programs on your computer opening and closing? 
Is your hard drive whirling away when you’re not doing anything?
Is there an unknown icon in your windows system tray? (The box in the lower right-hand corner of your screen which contains icons of various programs that are always running in the background).

 These are all signs that a program may be up to no good in the background.  Your computer is probably infected with spyware, trojans and other pests.  This week we will review commercial programs that you should use to identify, isolate and destroy all the nasties in your files. Next week we will discuss basic tee shirt logos for safe and secure computing behavior.

The following information will help you become a “Spambuster” and join ETS in the fight against spam!

Spyware/Adware  Scanning Software
Some common spyware/adware applications are: Kazaa, Hot Bar, Hunt Bar, Weatherbug, EBay Toolbar, BonziBuddy, Gator, Popup Killer, RealAudio, WildTangent, Windows Media Player (if you allow it to send and receive information). 

The easiest way to find and remove spyware and adware is with scanning software.  ETS continually tests new brands and versions of software for removing Spyware and Adware.  One of the best free packages we found is Spybot Search and Destroy.  If your computer has been loaded within the past year or so, you should find Spybot under Start->All Programs->General Utilities-> Spybot.   

Spyware and Adware are continually evolving and new applications are out every day. So before you scan your computer with Spybot make sure it has the latest updates. 

Click on the button that says “Search for Updates”.  If it comes up with a list of updates in the window, select them all, then click “Download Updates.” After downloading the updates,

Click on the button “Search and Destroy” located on the left side of the application.
Click on “Check for Problems”.  Along the bottom, you will see a green progress bar and see the program checking for various known spyware and adaware programs. You will see any that it found in the large window. 

If spyware is found, click on “fix selected problems.” It may not be able to remove some spyware until after a reboot. It will inform you of this and when you reboot, it will run again and finish cleaning your system.  If a large number of problems were found on your computer, you may want to run Spybot a few times to make sure it was successful in clearing them all.

If you run Spybot several times and some spyware keeps coming back, please call ETS Help Line x4357 for assistance. In some cases we have to remove spyware manually by deleting files and editing programs. 


Donna Pogroszewski
ETS Communications and Network Services
03/14/2005