Spyware Reviews | How Malware Ruined my Business

Starting around mid 2002 hackers began to use some really clever methods to infect thousands of internet users with what has come to be known as malware or spyware. For years internet advertisers like Gator, Xupiter and Ezula TopText have been inviting themselves into our PC's and ruining our internet experience – Not to mention flat out invading our privacy by collecting personal information and surfing habits. Sadly this stuff pales in comparison to what a hacker can do once he has access to your private documents, your files, your email, your private conversations, and even every keystroke you have ever made.

Recently some very clever worms have been used by hackers through emails to install Trojan Horse or Backdoor programs on unsuspecting victims. Traditionally these virus like programs spread like wildfire until they are finally caught by the various antivirus companies. More often than not they go undetected until the damage has been done.

Here is a true story about an American friend of mine named Heath Mcdonald. Heath was a web programmer (like me) who had 6 or 7 profitable websites that he had managed to build up slowly over the course of about 5 years. You could easily say that his entire life was online and he had some really good systems in place for data backups and system recovery etc. In June 2003 Heath was downloading some MP3's from a file sharing program so he could listen to music while he did some work on his websites. Heath, like many of us, downloaded the odd pirated album or software title with programs like Limewire or mIRC. Usually without knowing where it actually came from, and rarely if ever scanning it for malware.

When Heath next sat down to do some work he got the shock of his life. All of his websites had been pointed to a Russian website! Upon further investigation he found that all of his domain names had been transferred in ownership to someone in Russia . To make matters even more disastrous the hackers had taken control of his web server and copied his customer list and other sensitive data. He has also verified that files off of his personal PC including photos of his family were copied and uploaded to a PC in Russia .

The hackers had used a Trojan Horse program which was imbedded in one of the files Heath downloaded. This gave them complete access to his work PC including every keystroke he made, like ALL of his passwords. This was completely devastating as the hackers even had his online banking password as well as passwords to his clients websites. Heath immediately got in touch with his registrar who claimed their hands are tied. The Russian domain registrar was even less helpful and as of this writing (Aug 2004) Heath has still not regained access to his domain names and has completely given up. You can't blame him.

Unfortunately stories like my friends are all too common. In a recent book by Frank Abignale he reports that internet fraud has gone up 670% since 2001. These crimes are increasing and international law enforcement is all but useless in all but the most severe cases. It's simply a fact that if you are not running Spyware Removal tools then you ARE infected with some form of malware.

Bruce Stefani,

http://www.spyware-reviews.com

Check out our top 5 Spyware Reviews and don't allow this modern nightmare to happen to you.