Taken from www.millmates.com web site Feb 21st 2005.
Just what can you depend on?
This morning, I ran Ass-Master, sorry(!), Task Manager, (waaaeell it’s spelt the same!).
It informed me that I had AdMilli on my system. I was aware of it, but I thought I had zapped it last week. I went to the registry entry, and there it was. So, like a good boy, I ran AdAware. It did not ‘see’ Admilli’s entry. I then ran Microsoft’s Beta AntiSpyware utility. It did find Admilli and it offered to ‘Remove’ it. I pressed the appropriate button and sent Admilli to Hades.
At least, that’s what should have happened. I then went to the registry entry to have a deko, just in case. There was Admilli, bold as brass, sat there mocking me it was. I deleted it and then rebooted my PC (not strictly necessary, but a good idea). Had it gone? Nope! To erase the rascal I had to start Regedit and do the dirty deed myself.
What does all this tell you? Only that if you want to get anything done properly, you have to do it yourself.
I am now experiencing a very depressing and jaundiced view of ALL of these anti-spyware products. I try not to be a conspiracy theorist, but I have been wondering for some time about the spy-ware and anti-spyware boys and girls and just how much space lies between them?
Could it be that those well-known makers and purveyors of anti-malware are actually supporting the increasing attacks that are made on us each day? Are they producing the bad-stuff themselves? Are they financing the bad-guys and encouraging them to do their worst? I don’t know, is the answer to those questions. But, there are ant-malware products being advertised, to the innocent, that do contain diallers and spyware. So why should this practice be isolated to the little guys?
As someone important once said “Find out who profits and you discover the source of the problem”, or something along those lines.
Check your anti-spyware and anti-virus/trojan programs very carefully. Monitor the processes on your system daily. A standard PC should not have much more than 30 processes running as an average. Learn which processes do what and which are genuine. Become familiar with Regedit and use it to track the evil stuff and remove it.
It really is a pain, I know, but the people who produce and deploy these nasty, intrusive and invasive programs are sad recidivists with whom we have to learn to live, for the time being at least.
We must all pray, my children, that someone develops an operating system that is not vulnerable to these attacks.
Protect and Survive!
Robb Kimmer 19/02/2005
