Google or Yahoo planted spyware in my work pc?

F

FullerH

Joined
Nov 25, 1998
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I normally use Ixquick for research into companies filing registrations with my agency, but I had one the other day that did not show up on Ixquick, so I looked on Google and on Yahoo. Afterwards, my pc started to act up in that it would not open any of the internal computer files. i called the computer specialist and he came over and looked at it and said that there was a piece of recently installed spyware. He asked me if I had gone to any sites recently that I had not gone to in a while. I said that the only ones were Google and Yahoo. He said that the spyware had come form one of them.

Do any of you know anything about this?
 
Some of the add-ons these sites install on PC act very much like viruses, ie. some security programs require those to be uninstalled before you can install those. I suspect that there are not very nasty in reality but instead done in a quik and dirty way. Some of those also seem to prevent some browser functionality.

TLM
 
When I was cleaning up my sister's laptop of spyware, Spybot S&D marked a program that was installed by Yahoo. Apparently they install some other "helpful utilities" with the tools you want.
 
Remember there is almost nothing for free , especially on the interent. If they say it is free , there is usually a program installed they dont tell you about.
Yahoo is "free" as long as you dont mind installing thier mal/spyware/toolbar junk.
I had quite a money making time 2-3 years ago when that Bonzai Buddy was popular , I was amazed at how many people had it on thier pc and had no idea how it got there.
 
I never install any "helpers" from Google or Yahoo although I use them both frequently. I haven't noticed any malwear coming from either of them. Did you click on "yes" to anything while on their websites? I don't even recall being asked if I wanted anything lately. Did you try looking at you history file to see what pages you went to? Maybe you accidently triggered something from outside when you were still nominally on Google. I have used the Google image search and then looked at the Google copy of the page. Some web pages with "hot" graphic content throw up a lot of popup windows and down let you close Internet Explorer even though you don't switch to their webpage. Somehow they have strong links that get triggered when you just access a copy of the master web page.
 
I have Spyware Doctor on my computer and it automatically notifies me if the website I am trying to access may be malicious and requires that I OK access before it will let me go there.

Great spyware detector and I believe I paid about $30 online. Well worth the money. Finds spyware that spybot and adaware can't find.
 
rebeltf said:
Remember there is almost nothing for free , especially on the interent. If they say it is free , there is usually a program installed they dont tell you about.
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Exactly.

Google toolbar is spyware. Just know that.

My guess is that the spyware in question came from yahoo since I frequently use google (though not the google toolbar) (my favorite is ixquick, but sometime it misses what google finds... and vice a versa too), and I have not seen google drop spyware just from using it. But I do know that yahoo has done so in the past.
 
Google toolbar is spyware. Just know that.
Click to expand...
Well I'm using it so if you can tell me more about it. As far as I know this is a wide spread well known sofware, I know many people in software industry who use it for their personal use, so would it be something in it I think I'd know already about it. That said I may be wrong.

Added: By the way, using anything but IE should protect you from most spywares.
 
Ravaillac said:
Well I'm using it so if you can tell me more about it. As far as I know this is a wide spread well known sofware, I know many people in software industry who use it for their personal use, so would it be something in it I think I'd know already about it. That said I may be wrong.

Added: By the way, using anything but IE should protect you from most spywares.
Click to expand...

See this website: http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/googleupdater/

I Googled it if you'd like to know! ;)
 
I would advise Firefox users to use the Google bar developed by the Mozilla community: http://googlebar.mozdev.org/. I've been using it ever since I switched to Firefox, and it does everything I could ever ask of Google.

For that matter, I'm with Ravaillac. IE should stand for I'm Exploitable.
 
I use firefox, and I know several people who have so much crap cluttering their IE toolbars 4 rows deep. . . and they dont know or care how to get rid of it. The Firefox browser is nice and uncluttered, and the google search tab thats built in works great. I havent used IE since I switched. IE also uses "active x" controls, which I believe people can use to install malicious programs on your pc. My PC was slow and faltering, so I found out it could be from the active x- When I disabled active x, my computer worked much better, but IE wouldnt work well at all, and would give me little pop up warnings.
Now I havent had a single instance of spyware, since my switch to firefox. :thumbup:
 
The Yahoo toolbar affects Mozillas but isn't very difficult to get rid of.

TLM
 
I don't even know why people using Firefox install search engine toolbars.

There's a drop-down list and a box to the right of the address bar. Choose your search engine from the drop-down list, enter your terms in the box and hit enter.

If you use IE and have removed and spyware, be sure to reset your security settings. Otherwise ActiveX crap may install automatically. Click the Tools menu, Internet Options... Then click the Security tab. Click on Internet and then click the Default Level button. This will reset to medium, which is good for most purposes.

If you don't have Windows XP with Service Pack 2, dealing with ActiveX is hell. You can either turn it off and get the endless warnings that Rat Finkenstein mentioned, or you can turn it on and get the endless "Do you want to install this" dialogs and potentially click "Yes" by accident.

If you have Windows XP, definitely install Service Pack 2. You won't be prompted automatically for ActiveX installations by default. That's the way it should've been designed in the first place.
 
I read on claire wolfe's site that Yahoo was installing a "internet beacon"
whatever that is? It is supposed to keep Yahoo in touch with were you
go on the web.


Sounds hinky to me.
 
ITS GOOGLE!!! the same crap happened to me and i had to call the network thing to get my computer fixed
 
I have XP SP2, the MS spyware detector, AdAware and Spybot S&D installed. I also have anti virus and firewall systems and I ONLY use Firefox. So far all of this seems to have prevented any nasties getting into my machine. I would certainly NEVER click on 'Yes' to ANY popup windows, that's just begging for trouble. Also, I never click on any of the ad links on any page, I figure that would be a great way to get a whole lot of crap you don't want.
 
gajinoz said:
I have XP SP2, the MS spyware detector, AdAware and Spybot S&D installed. I also have anti virus and firewall systems and I ONLY use Firefox. So far all of this seems to have prevented any nasties getting into my machine.
Click to expand...

The other thing that gets a lot of people is adware attached to programs, especially file sharing programs like Kazaa. You really have to be careful about what you download.

gajinoz said:
Also, I never click on any of the ad links on any page, I figure that would be a great way to get a whole lot of crap you don't want.
Click to expand...

Go get Adblock and you won't even see them. It's wonderful. :D It really makes a difference especially when you're on dial-up.
 
Ryan8 said:
Go get Adblock and you won't even see them. It's wonderful. :D It really makes a difference especially when you're on dial-up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that for a while now. One of those things I'm gunna do one day! :rolleyes:

Maybe I'll give myself a kick in the arse and get onto it now!
 
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