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PC Magazine Fighting Spyware Viruses And 01_577697 ffirs.qxd 12/7/04 11:49 PM Page i PC Magazine® Fighting Spyware, Viruses, and Malware Ed Tittel TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_577697 ffirs.qxd 12/7/04 11:49 PM Page ii PC Magazine® Fighting Spyware, Viruses, and Malware Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 0-7645-7769-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/RW/RS/QU/IN No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, e-mail: [email protected]. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tittel, Ed. PC magazine fighting spyware, viruses and malware / Ed Tittel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7645-7769-7 (paper/website) 1. Computer security. 2. Computer viruses. I. Title. QA76.9.A25T57 2005 005.8--dc22 2004024100 Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. PC Magazine and the PC Magazine logo are registered trademarks of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings, Inc. Used under license. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_577697 ffirs.qxd 12/7/04 11:49 PM Page iii Credits EXECUTIVE EDITOR VICE PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE GROUP Chris Webb PUBLISHER Richard Swadley CONTRIBUTOR AND PROJECT MANAGER Dawn Rader VICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Joseph B. Wikert SENIOR DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Kevin Kent PROJECT COORDINATOR Erin Smith PRODUCTION EDITOR Gabrielle Nabi GRAPHICS AND PRODUCTION SPECIALISTS Lauren Goddard TECHNICAL EDITOR Heather Pope Mark Justice Hinton QUALITY CONTROL TECHNICIAN COPY EDITOR Amanda Briggs Kim Cofer John Greenough Jessica Kramer EDITORIAL MANAGER Carl Pierce Mary Beth Wakefield MEDIA DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST Kit Malone PROOFREADING AND INDEXING TECHBOOKS Production Services About the Author Ed Tittel is a full-time writer, trainer, and consultant, and the author of more than 100 computer books. He’s been writing, researching, and teaching on Windows security topics since 1996. He’s taught security classes for the NetWorld/Interop conference (1997–2002), the Internet Security Conference, a.k.a. TISC (1999–2001), and as an adjunct faculty member at Austin Community College in his hometown, of Austin, Texas. Ed also writes regularly about security topics for numerous TechTarget Web sites and for Certification Magazine (where he’s a columnist and the Technology Editor). Ed also manages the IT certification guide and topic area at InformIT.com, and writes occasionally on security topics for TechBuilder.org, TechRepublic, and other Web sites. Ed stumbled into the subject of this book — literally — in 2002 when one of his coworkers complained about a toolbar in Internet Explorer that just wouldn’t go away. After repeated attempts to remove the offending item — an adware object that replaced defaults galore, and insinuated itself most cleverly into the Web browser and registry — Ed soon learned about anti-spyware and anti-adware software. From this encounter, an abiding interest in the sub- ject matter was born and continues to this day. An inveterate tinkerer cursed with incurable curiosity, Ed has become something of a connoisseur of spyware, adware, and malware protection tools and techniques. For that rea- son he really enjoyed writing this book and would also be glad to hear from its readers at [email protected] via e-mail. To get past Ed’s spam filter, however, please put PCMFig: in the subject line of all e-mails you send to him. TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 01_577697 ffirs.qxd 12/7/04 11:49 PM Page iv I’d like to dedicate this book to my loving wife, Dina, and thank her not only for her support and encouragement, but also for bringing our beautiful son, Gregory, into this world on 2/6/2004. Nothing I can do or say can ever completely communicate my love, appreciation, and affection, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying! TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! 02_577697 fpref.qxd 11/29/04 12:53 PM Page v Preface When I read that Microsoft was planning for 100 million downloads of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) — a new add-on to the company’s flagship desktop operating system that is being publicly released just as I finish the initial draft of this book — I already knew that the world of computing was crossing over into a new phase of use and existence. Explaining why will take a little doing, but also leads directly into the motivation and justification for this book. I started using the Internet seriously in 1987 (and had been a serious CompuServe user since the late 1970s). Never in my wildest dreams did I see the Internet becoming a primary vehicle for soft- ware distribution, as well as communications, information gathering, socializing, entertainment, and so forth. Windows XP SP2 weighs in at somewhere between 250 and 266 megabytes in size — nearly half the contents of a typical CD-ROM, and a pretty hefty download for anybody who doesn’t have a fast Internet connection. Yet here is Microsoft, gearing up for 100 million downloads of this release — a staggering 210 quadrillion bits worth of data — in two months (note: in late October 2004, Microsoft reported there’d been 106 million copies of SP2 accessed, of which 90 million were downloaded and 26 mil- lion distributed on CD). And it’s just one of many companies that now routinely use the Internet to deliver software, updates, upgrades, and so forth on a completely routine basis. In fact, Microsoft’s recommendation for Windows XP users in need of SP2 was to simply enable the Automatic Update function in the operating system, so that it would show up some morning on the desktop, ready to be installed. But alas, what works so very well for software and content that users actually want to see, use, or install works equally well for unwanted content and software as well. Pop-up advertisements for everything from college degrees to all kinds of medications to salacious materials routinely dog peo- ple’s desktops as they visit Web sites, and downloading software from unknown or potentially ques- tionable sources can introduce hidden invaders that can sometimes wreak havoc on the unwary or unsuspecting. Likewise, lots of interesting malicious software — called malware throughout this book — has interesting ways of using e-mail attachments, file transfers, or supposed image files to weasel its way into unprotected PCs. Because everybody uses the Internet these days, everybody must also be prepared to deal with what’s out there “in the wild” and be able to protect themselves from the unwanted or the uninvited interlopers that will try to make a home on their systems. That’s the real reason why I wrote this book: to explain and explore these dangers, to provide some idea of the kinds of risks or threats they pose, and to describe preventative tools and best practices to help everyone avoid the threats they face on a daily basis, unwitting or otherwise. I also describe how to diagnose potential infections or infestations when unwanted visitors do establish residence on your PC, and how to clean up after- wards, if and when this should happen to you.
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