Computer Users Face New Scourge

Ev!L-aLphA · Oct 10, 2004, 11:37 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- Chuck Harris remembers when the Internet was fun and he'd spend hours reading his favorite news sites, checking the church calendar, browsing the shops. Then, a few weeks ago, he lost control of his computer. It turned into a giant electronic billboard.

The Web browser was taken over by a company he didn't recognize. Pop-up windows tried to download stuff he didn't ask for. Strange icons kept appearing offering low home mortgage loans and sexual enhancement pills he didn't want.

Harris spent days trying to fix the computer, but the programs had multiplied to the point where he couldn't run anything else and he decided to give up on the machine. Last week, the 68-year-old retired aerospace engineer from Yorktown, Va., shelled out $1,000 for a new computer, but now he and his wife, Dorothy, use it only when absolutely necessary.

Source: Yahoo

zerodamage · Oct 10, 2004, 12:42 PM

He bought a new computer for a software issue? I will remember that the next time the radio in my truck doens't work right. I will just buy a new truck.

Dark Lord · Oct 10, 2004, 12:54 PM

guy coulda saved him self a thousand bucks if he just ran ad-aware....

Shinjikun · Oct 10, 2004, 12:55 PM

Fooooooormat!

EfrainMan · Oct 10, 2004, 12:58 PM

The naive suffer the most in this online world.

But it still sucks they have to suffer at all.

HunterZ · Oct 10, 2004, 01:07 PM

My downstairs neighbour (who knows almost nothing about computers) recently purchased an old computer (HP PII-500, 128MB RAM, 20GB HDD, on-board nVidia Riva TNT, Win98SE) to do word processing and get on the Internet (she got a cable connection through Comcast like I have). Yesterday (thanks to my roommate bragging to neighbours that we're computer geeks) I spent a good 6 hours down there due to the fact that her computer had become riddled with spyware to the point where Internet Explorer could no longer even load web pages. I started removing spyware via the Add/Remove Programs menu, but one of the programs totally hosed Windows on its way out. To make a long story short, I ended up reformatting and reinstalling Win98SE from scratch, then getting all the critical updates, then installed Firefox (set as the default browser) and Ad-Aware (she'll probably never use it because the free version doesn't do automatic scanning and I didn't show her how to use it because I wanted to get the hell out of there).

Tipstaff · Oct 10, 2004, 06:01 PM

Running a spyware/adware program doesn't work 100% of the time. I used to spend a couple hours working on customers machines trying to get rid of spyware/adware. I'd get to the point that programs like Spybot and Ad-Aware would tell me the system was clean, even to the point that the AV software was telling me the machine was clean, only to get the thing back on the internet, and BOOM! Instant reinfection. Now, if I can't fix it within those 2 hours I wipe that biatch clean, and reinstall. No more hassle, and I can assure the customer that it's now 100% clean. Any reinfection, and it's their fault.

What that old fart did is extreme. Whoever sold it to him is an idiot. These days you make more money fixing a machine (for either virus/adware/spyare removal, or upgrade) then you would selling a person a brand spanking new computer.

Falstaff · Oct 10, 2004, 09:36 PM

In this world and age where you have to pay for your ISP, pay for the computer and the software, endure the long downloads and shitty upgrades, i.e. XP service pack 2, the learning curve is pretty damn steep. I would personally kick the ass of anyone that targets my computer to put spyware or adware on it, or so you would wish, but hackers, adware and spyware are the direct result of the total lazyness of the industry to attempt to do anything about it. Unless you pass a law against it, there is not a crime commited. Bill Gates knows damn good and well who is doing it and when they are doing it, and so does the federal government. Until we make it a federal law to attack computers with spyware or adware this will continue. You have enemies, well they dont have to ruin your day by insulting you, oh no, all they have to do is test your security on your computer and crap on you that way. Anyone in our community that find adware and spyware just a nuisance, let me remind you, one day you to might have a credit card, a personal life or a bank account that will get comprimised by the bad guys. You think that Osama Bin Laden is a threat? Try the internet, and remember everytime you visit a porn site, load trail software or download illegal crap from warez sites or the equivalent your a part of the whole nasty pile of crap that people are bitching about. I for one think that the world at large will always be a victem of their own ignorance. I stay off the machine as long as I can, because even when I connect to DH, my ISP allows all kinds of crap to funnel through but my software catches it.
The real price to pay here is not measured in thousands or millions of dollars, it is the theft of identities, lives and oppurtunities because of the larcenous acts of spyware makers everywhere.
What galls me is that spy and adware makers tell you that their software will not comprimise your security, nothing could be farther from the truth, so if any body knows a spy or adware maker personally, please find a knotted tree limb and shove in an oriface of choice for me, because if I had the chance that is what I would do.