Announcements

2006-09-29Adware+ DropSpam+ Win32.LinkOptimizer (2)+ SuggestorHijacker+ Teslaplus.comKeylogger+ SCKeyloggerMalware+ RegFreeze+ TitanShield+ Smitfraud-C.+ IconDropper+ Win32.Bomka.r+ KodakFoto+ Win32.Downloader.Small.dib+ Win32.LowZones.DG+ SurfSideKick+ Smitfraud-C.+ AmircivilSpyware+ webHancer+ UCmore+ PurityScanTrojan+ Zlob.ICodecPack+ WinSmurf+ Win32.Small.czl+ Win32.Delf.JKH+ Win32.Agent.AWM+ BraveSentry+ Win32.Viking.V+ Win32.Agent.AVS+ Tarma+ Downloader.Tsupdate.L+ Win32.Adload.gw+ Fake.WinsDriver+ IEFeatinstaller+ Zlob.Downloader+ Zlob.MSSearch+ Haxdoor-H (2)+ Win32.Small.js+ Win32.Agent.rk+ Zlob.HQCodec+ Win32.Downloader.Wzip32+ CastGen+ DeskMate.Tahni+ Vcodec.IntcodecTotal: 322963 fingerprints in 49517 rules for 2280 products...

2006-09-22 Adware + Win32.LinkOptimizer (2) Keylogger + SCKeylogger Malware + Smitfraud-C. + Winsoftware.WinAntiVirusPro2006 + VirtuMonde + AdvancedSearchBar Spyware + 180Solutions.Zango Trojan + Win32.Banload.BHI + Win32.Small.doi + Win32.Agent.AGF + Haxdoor-H + Zlob.iCodecPack + Nous-Tech.UDefender + Zlob.HQCodec + Zlob.XPasswordManager + Win32.Avkiller + AccountMaker + Goldun (2) + MuKill + Win32.Small.asf + Win32.Agent.rk Total: 321626 fingerprints in 49160 rules for 2248 products. More...

2006-09-15 Malware + MagicControl.Agent + VirtuMonde ++ Win32.Small.BKF + Smitfraud-C. ++ Cartao ++ Haxdoor.Ki PUPS ++ VirusBurst Spyware + LinkMaker Trojan + Zlob.XPasswordManager ++ IRCBot.Player ++ Fake.Winupdates.WSCSVC_kill ++ Intexp.D ++ Bifrose.LA ++ Win32.Agent.AVK + Nous-Tech.UDefender ++ Win32.HacDef + Haxdoor-H Total: 320957 fingerprints in 48956 rules for 2233 products. More...

If you take a look at todays update list, you may notice that the number of fingerprints is smaller than those of earlier updates. This is not due to detections that have been removed, but due to improvements that the last engine now allows, resulting in smaller update download sizes and faster scans. The second part of our news is our new Spybot-S&D for Windows Mobile. We're quite aware that this topic is controversial, with some people saying that speaking about viruses on cellphones is just a hype, while others report about multiple infection attempts in crowded places. Our opinion on this is simply that it's better to protect yourself before something happens than to do it afterwards. Pocket PCs and Smartphones based on Windows have...

2006-09-08 Adware ++ Suggestor Dialer + Dialer.GlobalAccess Hijacker + Naupoint + TV Media + ISearchTech.PowerScan ++ DotComToolbar Malware + Megasearch + Smitfraud-C. + SurfSideKick ++ Deskbar + Command Service PUPS ++ Spionfrei Security + Windows.Security.InternetExplorer Spyware + VX2.e.Favoriteman + Hyperlinker + Targetsaver Trojan + Win32.VB.xj ++ Fake.Oleext + Media Tickets ++ Instafin ++ Smitfraud-C.MailBot ++ Smitfraud-C.FakeProxyUpdate + WMF Exploit.NewYear2006 ++ qqHacker.IE-Bar ++ typereg32.IE-Bar + UpToFind.RelatedSearch + DialerPlatform + Zlob.XPasswordManager + Vcodec.Intcodec + Hupigon Total: 315796 fingerprints in 44255 rules for 2234 products. More...

2006-09-01Adware+ LinkMaker+ SurfAccuracy+ Win32.LinkOptimizer+ Boran.gDialer+ Carima Enterprises+ Dialer_XXHijacker+ DailyToolbarMalware+ Vcodec.eMedia+ SurfSideKick+ DHCP.Hotfix+ DittoSideBar+ Deskbar+ Smitfraud-C.+ SpywareSheriff.FakeAlert+ CashDeluxe+ Hippy NotifyPUPS+ MySpaceBarSecurity+ Windows.FileExe+ Windows.RedirectedHosts+ Windows.Security.FirewallOpenPortsSpyware+ PurityScan+ UCmore+ TargetsaverTrojan+ CN.wAQdN+ Dmcast.Toolbar+ Troj.RPCS+ Win32.Agent.I+ Win32.Feebs+ Win32.AdvertMen+ Elitum.EliteBar+ Win32.Hupigon.C+ Win32.Small.act+ Banker.R+ FakeEbayBill+ Zlob.ZCodec+ Win32.Agent.h+ AdMoke.aTotal: 315911 fingerprints in 44279 rules for 2241 products. More...

2006-08-25Hijacker+ ISearchTech.PowerScanMalware+ PestTrap+ Search.AnyOfUs+ Zlob.HostsKill+ Zlob.Inverse+ Smitfraud-C. (2)+ CashDeluxe+ Vcodec.Intcodec+ Vcodec.eMedia+ WinFixer2005+ ErrorSafe+ Winsoftware.WinAntiVirusPro2006+ Zlob.HomepageMonitorSpyware+ TargetsaverTrojan+ Fraud.ProtectionBar+ Zlob.IERedir+ Vcodec+ SpyQuake2+ Banker.Delf+ PSW.Lineage+ EbayBill.F+ Win32.AdvertMen+ Win32.Small.cjy+ Zlob.Downloader+ Zlob.XPasswordManager+ Rightclick.PcastTotal: 314623 fingerprints in 43834 rules for 2219 products. More...

The past look of our website was quite a few years old already, with constant complaints about how "five years back" it looked. And while we personally don't care a lot about adding fancy things like Flash or too much Javascript to a website, keeping it easy and scalable, we decided to improve it in a few places at least, removing the heavy black bar and making the boxes around the text a bit less static. We'll probably also keep adding small improvements over the next weeks; if the page looks funny today, please be patient with us. Another reason would be to make the site more distinguished from others, especially fraud sites copying our look to fool users. And that's also a reason for this post: to assure you that you have not been...

The september issue of Consumer Reports contains a test on anti spyware products. Sadly, the persons who conducted the test were not really working concentrated I guess, since while recommending our product, they printed a wrong URL. If you visit the URL Consumer Reports printed, you'll reach one of the fraud sites mentioned in our August 4th news. That in itself might have been a typo or mistake, but since we received a lot of emails from people who fell for the fraud site, we contacted Consumer Reports with the plea to please warn people about the wrong URL in their next issue. Consumer Reports - who as an nonprofit organization for consumers should have a real interest to help their readers - didn't even care to answer our...

The september issue of Consumer Reports contains a test on anti spyware products. Sadly, the persons who conducted the test were not really working concentrated I guess, since while recommending our product, they printed a wrong URL. If you visit the URL Consumer Reports printed, you'll reach one of the fraud sites mentioned in our August 4th news. That in itself might have been a typo or mistake, but since we received a lot of emails from people who fell for the fraud site, we contacted Consumer Reports with the plea to please warn people about the wrong URL in their next issue. Consumer Reports - who as an nonprofit organization for consumers should have a real interest to help their readers - didn't even care to answer our requests...

2006-08-18 Adware + NewWeb + 2Search + SurfAccuracy + WSearch ++ ZenoSearch Hijacker + MaxSearch + MarketDart + Kuaiso.a + DailyToolbar Malware + Smitfraud-C. + AntispywareSoldier + IMNames + Mirar ++ Pacimedia.BHO + Mailbot + IGetNet.WinStart + ISearchTech.ISTsvc PUPS + LetsCool.Wallpaper + WPA_Reset5 Security + Windows.Security.InternetExplorer + Windows.Explorer Spyware + Huntbar.Web Search + Alexa + Targetsaver + 180Solutions.Zango + 180Solutions.SearchAssistant + VX2.NetPal Trojan + Win32.Small.fb + Jupilites + Zlob.Downloader + Banker.R + StartPage.NK + Win32.Dldr + Downloader.Dstart + Zlob.BigDown + UptoFind.RelatedSearch + eUniverse.PowerSearch + Virtual Bouncer Total: 313821 fingerprints in 43568 rules for 2209 products...

If you take a look at todays update list, you may notice that the number of fingerprints is smaller than those of earlier updates. This is not due to detections that have been removed, but due to improvements that the last engine now allows, resulting in smaller update download sizes and faster scans. The second part of our news is our new Spybot-S&D for Windows Mobile. We're quite aware that this topic controversial, with some people saying that speaking about viruses on cellphones is just a hype, while others report about multiple infection attempts in crowded places. Our opinion on this is simply that it's better to protect yourself before something happens than to do it afterwards. Pocket PCs and Smartphones based on Windows have a...

2006-08-11 Adware ++ IEHelper.e ++ Win32.Agent.y ++ MaxFiles ++ PurityScan.ej + MediaMotor + BookedSpace + 2Search Hijacker +Clearsearch.Net +FunWebProducts Malware ++ DiaRemover ++ GoldSpy ++ Vcodec.Intcodec + SurfSideKick ++ DigitalNames + E2Give ++ IMNames PUPS + WildTangent + Hotbar + WhenU.SaveNow + EverestPoker Spyware ++ PurityScan ++ C2.lop + Targetsaver + Xupiter.Sqwire + 180Solutions.Zango Trojans + CnsMin ++ Win32.Agent-gen.cws + Zlob.Downloader ++ CoolWWWSearch.SearchToolbar ++ BankAsh ++ SpyQuake2 ++ Zlob.Downloader ++ LZIO.Small + UpToFind.RelatedSearch ++ HomelandNet.DL Total: 311879 fingerprints in 43059 rules for 2170 products. More...

... and if they can't do it with quality, they'll try with libel. Back in April 2005, Norton Antivirus by Symantec already had a false positive about one of our products. We couldn't get Symantec to react at first, we wrote an article about that on our website. After that, Symantec could suddenly react, and told us that it would be a question of honor to deal with such things without any publicity. They removed the false positive, and we removed their name from that news article. Now, we have received more and more complaints over the year that Symantec would recommend to its customers to deinstall Spybot-S&D, because it would corrupt Norton Ghost images. We finally found their knowledgebase article about it, and were a bit surprised to...

A lot of discussions have taken place in the past few days about a new iTunes feature. When you update to iTunes 6.0.2, it will tell you the only new features are video preview in the shop and some bug fixes. But the most visible new feature you see once you have it installed is the so-called MiniStore - a not-so-small shop frame in the lower third of the main iTunes window. It displays albums similar to the ones you click inside your song database. Personally, I would regard a list of similar music as a good way to broaden my music horizon. But since there were so many public opinions and comments on this topic, some of our detectives decided to give it a deeper look. Let's start with the good news - as soon as you hide the MiniStore...

One has to admit that Apple has been quite fast in reacting to concerns many people had about the new iTunes ministore. There were various reports that Apple officials told the ministore would not collect any information at all, or at least the data was not stored. While we finally got into contact with the right people at Apple and are verifying this, Apple also made another important quick step: it made the ministore optional (you'll now just get a page that allows you to use or hide it when you first open the new iTunes), even for existing 6.0.2 downloads, and if you choose to use it, it seems it will no longer use Omniture. As we wrote on the 13th, our intention in detection one iTunes file was to show Apple that their customers...

Sony's clumsy care for it's customers privacy has been shown widely around in the rootkit affair a few months ago. Calm observers have argumented that it was kind of hyped. Well, we've got another example of Sony's attitude towards privacy. Patrick is not really listening to main stream music a lot, so he was quite surprised to get advertised for the Band OOMPH! in his inbox in late 2004. Even though he's receiving a lot of spam, this one came from Sony BMG, a company that huge and well known that it should be able to afford spam. After writing the usual letter requesting information about all stored data, removal of that data and confirmation of further barring of his email address, Sony BMG did actually all that after a preliminary...

In the past months, many users have complained about 'bad checksum errors'. While switching to an update mirror nearer to your location should often improve the situation (for help on how to do that, see step 4 of our update how to), we are proud to announce that PlanetMirror (many thanks to you, guys!) has offered us their huge network to help our users getting faster updates. PlanetMirror is serving an average of 1.5 Terabytes per day in total, so they should be quite able to boost our updates, and while this is still in testing, we invite you to select PlanetMirror the next time you've opened the update page inside Spybot-S&D and let us know your experience through our bug form. More...

While European commissions are still struggling with Microsoft about fair competition, raising a bunch of secondary discussions about the inclusion of anti-virus and anti-spyware applications in the upcoming Windows Vista, CNet visitors have decided in a recent poll which software they like most. Spybot-S&D clearly leads CNets Sunday Smackdown, for which we want to thank all our users! And we're still struggling to get even better... this weekends update included an updated detection engine that will make heuristics - detection of yet unknown threats - much easier. More...

Symantec From letters that Symantec employees (Mr. Ingenpass and Mr. Sanchidrian) send to Spybot-S&D customers: Patrick Kolla is German living in Bochum (Germany). Patrick is well-known in his neighborhood for such scurrilous behavior [becomes immediately extremely abusive, insulting everyone]. These insults, along with quite a few other very personal attacks on Patricks person, have been received by many persons who wrote to Mr. Ingenpass and Mr. Sanchidrian directly. These responds have been sent by a Yahoo email address which did not respond to any queries, which means that this address is either one created by the two Symantec employees, meaning quite heavy personal slander by Symantec itself, or that Symantec passes along customers...