Rogue software

Sunday 2 March 2008 - 5:28 pm


Tonight I visited a friend's house and ended up having to put their computer right. Some of you may be aware of programs such as WinFixer and SpyLocked - programs which are foisted onto your computer, claiming to find security issues, then attempting to pester you into buying the "full version" in order to put things right. Naturally, it's all a pile of sh*t. This seems to be the way of prising money out of people nowadays - frightening people into buying useless software that claims to remove nasties, only to be nasties in themselves.

Tonight I had the honerous task of removing one called VirusHeat. When you find yourself having to pull the plug on the modem and repeatedly boot into 'Safe Mode', then you know you are dealing with something serious. And when you discover that legitimate programs such as Ad-Aware and SpywareBlaster have been removed without your permission, then you know things have got very silly indeed.

Please - if you are going to visit sites of a questionable nature, use an alternative browser like Firefox.

Us sad anoraks do have our uses, you know.

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