Security

Let me introduce myself for those of you that do not know who I am; my name is Tom Mercado (Aka 'TeMerc') and for the most part, the forums I visit are part of the Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals, (also known as ASAP). For over a year ... and a half now I have been directly involved in helping users remove and eliminate various forms of Spyware issues (malwares). With all of the choices out there it is often hard to narrow things down; however that said I personally recommend using HijackThis!, in conjunction with a variety of other internet security applications and tools. Since my ... (view more)

Fraud Alert! I just wanted to alert everyone of the latest email fraud / phishing scam that claims to pay eBay / Paypal customers $20 dollars for answering a supposed eBay-related survey. On the reward-survey.com, the page states that you must ... "enter your credit card information linked with your eBay and/or Paypal account ... [and then they] will deposit the $20 cash back directly to your account within three business days of your next purchase." Of course, nothing of the sort will happen -- and quite the opposite, I might add! At the time of composing this article, the reward- ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Diane M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just love getting your newsletters! They have helped me so much in the past. My question is in regard to a process named ccApp.exe: when I shut down my computer, I often have to wait for a long ... time before it actually shuts down to reboot. Most of the time I will get an error stating that 'ccApp.exe is not responding' and when I click to end the process, my computer remains frozen. Often times I have to reset the computer manually. Can you please help me out with this problem? I'm running Windows XP. Thanks for any help you can offer ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sandy D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have screensavers installed on my system -- and I don't even know how they got there (and it worries me!). What's worse is that I don't know how to remove the screensavers because I can't locate ... them in the computer! I would appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks! " My response: Unfortunately, a lot of the "free" screen savers floating on the Internet come bundled with Spyware. If you have screen savers and aren't sure how they got installed on your computer, I would recommend you do a Spyware scan. Spyware Doctor is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Chris K. writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer has so many popup blockers installed that my web pages won't display properly. For example: if I click a link on a web site that opens a new Browser Window, the page is blocked. As far ... as I understand, popup blockers are a part of my antivirus program, my firewall, my DSL connection (through Yahoo and SBC), and even Mozilla Firefox has one. I suspect there may be other popup blockers installed on my machine as years have gone by. My question is: how do I know which popup blockers to remove, yet keep my computer safe from ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Nancy H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just surfed on over to your web site for the first time. I saw your recent article ' Can't uninstall / remove PCMightyMax? ' and have tried the instructions as you have suggested. I went through ... the various steps you advised by running the PC Mighty Max 'installer', but did not see an option to remove mightyMax from my system. The only thing I saw was an option to install it again. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong. PC Mighty Max is *extremely* annoying, and seems more like a virus or a Trojan than anything! I'd love very much ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Fred S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently download a program called PCMighty Max. The web site said it was free and would fix errors on my computer. The problem is that it has the most annoying warnings and popups which ... practically force you into purchasing the full retail version. Question is: how can I remove PC Mighty Max from my computer? I have tried to remove mightymax from my Control Panel, but, the remove feature is not there. Thank you in advance for your help -- I am a new subscriber and look forward to my first edition! " My response: After a bit of ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sandie R. writes: " Dear Dennis, You are always so helpful with the tips you give in your newsletter! I hope you can help me. Three years ago, I purchased a used HP Pavilion desktop computer with Windows XP installed on it. After ... 1 year of usage, I decided to upgrade and packed away the old computer. The other day, I was doing some spring cleaning and decided to unpack the old computer and fire it up. Unfortunately, I forgot my Windows XP user password, and now I can't login. Is there anything I can do to get past the password? Thanks in advance for any suggestions you ... (view more)

wiredNews.com is reporting that an anti-phishing tool (currently only available in the beta stage of Internet Explorer version 7 ) will be available to all Windows XP Service Pack 2 users before the full release of IE7. Here's the full story: " ... Microsoft Corp. will soon make available to the general public a tool for warning users about 'phishing' scams that could lead to identity theft. Currently, such a tool comes only with the Internet Explorer 7 browser, which is available in tests only to a select group of developers. But within a few weeks, Microsoft will incorporate it into a ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joe B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been desperately trying to clean my computer of a nasty Malware / Spyware infection for the last 5 days. A characteristic of something that is going on is that while I'm typing along in a window, ... the window is suddenly de-activated and I have to mouse back to the window to activate it and continue typing. It's most irritating! I believe I have resolved the majority of the Spyware infection, however there are 4 files that keep reappearing even after I delete them. I can't seem to find instructions on the web, either. I'm not sure what ... (view more)