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Spyware, US "Terror" Alert
Posted on: Friday, August 13, 2004
Remember a few days ago how the governments in the US and England whipped up hysteria by saying there was an increased chance of a "terrorist" attack? Of course, the media bought it like idiots and just added oil to fire by making it headline news and showing piglets prancing around like dickheads in their helmets and kevlar on the streets of New York and London. And what was this "threat" information based on? Why, sources from the "intelligence," bien sur! Now, would that be the same "intelligence" which initiated an illegal aggression of Iraq and tried to justify it with total lies? Yes, the same.
Standard.
I have to bitch about something that really infuriated me yesterday (well, earlier today). I was doing one of my relatively frequent deep scans of the hard disk drive and whaddaya know: it turned out I had spyware residing on it. I knew how I'd gotten it--I had no-one but myself to blame. So, I followed the directions for removing it which basically consisted of a clean uninstall using the Add/Remove Programs panel. I thought that was it and just did another scan to make sure, being the perfectionist that I am (or as some may put it: being pernickety). But lo and behold, the son of a bitch was clocked again! I was astounded, so I went to the Internet to find out about this knave. (BTW, it's eZula Toptext and probably 99 out of a hundred of you have it installed on your computers, too.)
In short, I stayed up till Five in the morning like a total loser utilizing all the expertise I have and at least fifteen different programs to eradicate that mother. It really monumentally pissed me off. The reason UNWISE hadn't removed it was that the bastard retains a downloader/installer even AFTER uninstalling the program the regular way. This downloader/installer is invoked by a piece of code on a page or something of the sort (no-one seems to know for sure) and it then reinstalls eZula without any action or knowledge on your, the user's, part! It is not too pernicious compared to spyware in general: it won't steal your passwords or credit card numbers, etc. But it does transmit unknown information to a third-party server whenever you send an HTTP request (ie. click on or activate a hyperlink). The worst part is that it acts as a process of Internet Explorer and so firewalls cannot stop it using normal settings. If you are infected, first try to follow the instructions on the web page I gave you above. If it doesn't take care of the matter, try spyware removal programs. If all fails, the simplest way is not to remove but "castrate" it. To do this, activate program component control on your firewall (you DO have a firewall, right?), close any instances of Internet Explorer, delete Internet Explorer from your firewall list of trusted programs, reopen it and start surfing. You'll get a deluge of alerts from various MSIE components trying to access the Internet. Vet them making sure one of them is not eZula, TopText, HotText and similar and when you come across one of them, permanently deny it access. My method is too complicated to explain because eZula files change names and there's no way of knowing what monikers the ones on your computer have assumed.
Now here is what really incenses me beyond measure: it's bad enough that an advertizing company not only initially installs something on your own machine without your knowledge--I mean, if you take cold-callers, spam and so on, the advertizing industry is not the most scrupulous of sectors anyway--but very calculatedly and dastardly LIES to you about what it does to your very own computer!!! It piggybacks on one of your most used programs, usurps your Internet connexion (and slows it down, of course), and generally abuses your machine by doing things to it only you, the owner, should have the right to do. If it were a Microsoft component required for smooth operation of your OS, it would be understandable. But it isn't: its sole purpose is to force advertizing down your throat. And the worst, most aggravating facet of this is that what eZula are doing is COMPLETELY IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW!!! They are happily based in the US, wheeling and dealing, getting revenue from partners, infesting our computers with sleazy crap and no-one can do anything to them! That's the US for you, where the companies, not consumers, are king.
Shalom shalom...
Posted on: Friday, August 13, 2004
ב''ה
Remember a few days ago how the governments in the US and England whipped up hysteria by saying there was an increased chance of a "terrorist" attack? Of course, the media bought it like idiots and just added oil to fire by making it headline news and showing piglets prancing around like dickheads in their helmets and kevlar on the streets of New York and London. And what was this "threat" information based on? Why, sources from the "intelligence," bien sur! Now, would that be the same "intelligence" which initiated an illegal aggression of Iraq and tried to justify it with total lies? Yes, the same.
Standard.
I have to bitch about something that really infuriated me yesterday (well, earlier today). I was doing one of my relatively frequent deep scans of the hard disk drive and whaddaya know: it turned out I had spyware residing on it. I knew how I'd gotten it--I had no-one but myself to blame. So, I followed the directions for removing it which basically consisted of a clean uninstall using the Add/Remove Programs panel. I thought that was it and just did another scan to make sure, being the perfectionist that I am (or as some may put it: being pernickety). But lo and behold, the son of a bitch was clocked again! I was astounded, so I went to the Internet to find out about this knave. (BTW, it's eZula Toptext and probably 99 out of a hundred of you have it installed on your computers, too.)
In short, I stayed up till Five in the morning like a total loser utilizing all the expertise I have and at least fifteen different programs to eradicate that mother. It really monumentally pissed me off. The reason UNWISE hadn't removed it was that the bastard retains a downloader/installer even AFTER uninstalling the program the regular way. This downloader/installer is invoked by a piece of code on a page or something of the sort (no-one seems to know for sure) and it then reinstalls eZula without any action or knowledge on your, the user's, part! It is not too pernicious compared to spyware in general: it won't steal your passwords or credit card numbers, etc. But it does transmit unknown information to a third-party server whenever you send an HTTP request (ie. click on or activate a hyperlink). The worst part is that it acts as a process of Internet Explorer and so firewalls cannot stop it using normal settings. If you are infected, first try to follow the instructions on the web page I gave you above. If it doesn't take care of the matter, try spyware removal programs. If all fails, the simplest way is not to remove but "castrate" it. To do this, activate program component control on your firewall (you DO have a firewall, right?), close any instances of Internet Explorer, delete Internet Explorer from your firewall list of trusted programs, reopen it and start surfing. You'll get a deluge of alerts from various MSIE components trying to access the Internet. Vet them making sure one of them is not eZula, TopText, HotText and similar and when you come across one of them, permanently deny it access. My method is too complicated to explain because eZula files change names and there's no way of knowing what monikers the ones on your computer have assumed.
Now here is what really incenses me beyond measure: it's bad enough that an advertizing company not only initially installs something on your own machine without your knowledge--I mean, if you take cold-callers, spam and so on, the advertizing industry is not the most scrupulous of sectors anyway--but very calculatedly and dastardly LIES to you about what it does to your very own computer!!! It piggybacks on one of your most used programs, usurps your Internet connexion (and slows it down, of course), and generally abuses your machine by doing things to it only you, the owner, should have the right to do. If it were a Microsoft component required for smooth operation of your OS, it would be understandable. But it isn't: its sole purpose is to force advertizing down your throat. And the worst, most aggravating facet of this is that what eZula are doing is COMPLETELY IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW!!! They are happily based in the US, wheeling and dealing, getting revenue from partners, infesting our computers with sleazy crap and no-one can do anything to them! That's the US for you, where the companies, not consumers, are king.
Shalom shalom...
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