26 Oct 2007
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts
Spyware, bah!!
Well, instead of working on figuring out the vexing problem of how to get a photo gallery attached to this blog, I’ve been fighting malware on my main computer. Brenda was doing research on how various schools approach the issue of background checks for volunteers and, while on the website of one of the two big school boards in Calgary, managed to get a virus. It was one of those unpleasant ransom-ware style “virus scanner” deals, the virus pops up a WinXP style system tray alert box that warns of nasty viruses detected on the computer. Well, Duh!
The hook is that the malware tries to get you to buy a “full featured” version of some product (in this case, something called AntiVirGear) to remove the infection. Of course, if you’re dull enough to fall for it, the likelihood of being rewarded with a clean machine is pretty low. Anyway, it was a bear to get rid of: Norton, Adaware, Spybot and TrendMicro Housecall all were unsuccessful – although each one did find and remove some parts of the infestation. The last remnants of the virus relied on a randomly named and timestamped dll file in the system32 directory which had to be discovered and deleted by hand. Eventually I did clean it all up, but it took about 8 hours of effort.
I still think that I may rebuild things from scratch, just to be sure.
I quite enjoy the fine autumn days on the prairies; clear skies, mild temperatures and the endless vista of farmer’s fields. Today was one of those days – really, it was too nice to be stuck in the office. Once the workday shackles were loosened I headed home on my motorbike, the long way home. I headed north out of Calgary and then east to Delacour and past Keoma and north to Irricana. Then I turned around and went south to the Trans-Canada and then home. It was just over 100 km and almost certainly the best commute in recent memory! 
