h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I headed out to have a productive day visiting Grambo, Mike, the bank and then a supermarket.

I got to Grambo's and that's where it all went pear-shaped. He had been having problems with dialler pop-ups, yet he said when he ran Microsoft Anti-Spyware it said his machine was clean.

I installed AVG which found a half-dozen infections, but afterwards it popped up another dialler. I ran Microsoft Anti-Spyware, but it exited immediately. I ran it again, and again it exited immediately, this time popping up a dialog box labelled "Antispyware / Anti-virus" which said "Your computer has been checked and found clear of infections. OK."... This was nothing to do with the MS product, but the generic nature of the design was made to fool someone like Grambo who didn't know the anti-spyware package in question.

I tried running Ad-Aware, but it shut down with the same response. I examined his system and found a program I didn't recognise - "Spyware Stormer". I had a baaaaaad feeling.

I nipped round to Mike's for about half an hour, partly to collect some "West Wing" episodes and partly to use his web connection to do a little research. It turns out my gut instincts are still spot on. "Spyware Stormer" is a hacked clone of Ad Aware, which removes some very old spyware, gives a number of "false positives" and installs both its own ad pop-up engine and a system for enabling "driveby downloads". (Basically, when you just look at a web page with an affiliated download it intercepts the "Do you want to install this?" dialog and accepts the download on your behalf. )

Armed with a printout of the program's behaviour, I headed back to Grambo's and erased all trace of it. The pop-up diallers kept appearing. Now I need to find out what else it has installed, but I can't as it won't let me run any anti-spyware packages.

I've got a printout of the "Hijack This!" log from the machine, but I can't see anything out of the ordinary. By the time I reached the stage of printing it out it was approaching 4:45pm, and I had to dash for a bus home. I'll look at his machine again in a day or two.

Of course, the only way that "Spyware Stormer" can get onto a computer is for somebody to have the monumental stupidity to see a pop-up in the form "Your machine seems to be running slow - it may have spyware. Click here to download a program to remove it" and actually believe it and download the package.

I got home, swore at the walls for a while, had an insulin shot, changed, listened to "The Archers" and was collected by Sue for an evening out at a Chinese Restaurant.

We met Doug at the restaurant; I had a massive buffet, and . Afterwards we stopped off at a pub for a "wee Dram" before I jumped on a bus home. (The bus floor was flooded in vomit. But it wasn't mine! )

I got back, watched "The Farm" live, then the DVD I'd made of "The Bill" while I was out at the restaurant. I didn't actually get anything *done*, but it was a good end to an otherwise depressing day.

Oh, and I'm *still* waiting for this machine to restart since 4pm yesterday. Actually, the day before yesterday - it's 12:25am now!

Is it Series 5 of West Wing and is it as bad as they say?

It's series 6, and I don't know - I haven't watched it yet.

Hiya Peet, here's a heads up.

Check Dagesh's journal. He'll be up in Aberdeen 27th 28th May. How do you fancy a chinese meal on the Saturday, that place on Crown Street?

Let me know what you think.

Douglas

Sounds good to me... I'm going to see "Star Wars" next Friday, but the week after is clear at the moment. I think...

Hang on; I've got to 'phone Andy...

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Yup, that's fine.