MY EXPLORER'S BEEN HACKED!

[Osman]

My IE 6 SP 1 has been somehow invaded by a settings bug.
I'm running Windows2000.

Whenever I type an address in the address bar without
typing http://, it sends me to a web page called
http://www.smart-finder.biz.
Let's say if I type www.msn.com, it takes me to
http://www.smart-finder.biz/www.msn.com, which is not the
msn page, it's just their search page where they sell porn
or whatever.

The interesting thing is if I use the drop down menu from
the address bar, the address appears as
http://www.nkvd.us/www.msn.com

However If I do type in the http://, in the beginning I
can go where I intended.

I have McAfee virus scan but it detected no trojans.
I did a "Reset Web Settings", didn't work.
Originally the bug had set my homepage to this site, and
my search engine as well, but I've been able to change
those back.

What criminals! Someone should lock them up. But beyond
that, how do I get rid of this?

 

[Ray]

As a start you will need to clean your OS from the
spyware. Download CWShredder from
http://www.spychecker.com/program/cwshredder.html, Spybot
from http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?
lang=en&page=download and Adaware from
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/". Run them while offline and
in SAFE boot mode. Delete the red entries that Spybot
displays. Reboot. To prevent further infection of spyware
adjust the following:- In IE go to Tools, Internet
Options, Advanced tab and uncheck Enable Install On Demand
for both IE and Other. Then click the Privacy tab, click
Advance button. Tick:- Overide automatic cookie handling,
Accept First-party Cookies, Block Third-party Cookies,
Always allow session cookies. Click Ok, Ok. Finally,
download SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard from
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html,
install them and your OS will be spyware proof. You can
verify this by running either Spybot or Adaware after an
internet session. They will come up with a clean bill of
health. Of course you need to frequently look for updates
for all of the above mentioned software.