Ad-aware from lavasoft, may have spyware!

[Gerry O]

I have used ad-aware from lavasoft.com for awhile on my computer now
but have recently noticed that it causes my computer to lockup, even
when I'm not running it. It also causes me to get an error in IE that
shuts IE down. I also read a post, where someone said that it acts
like spyware itself because it reads your drive and sends the
information back to the swedish guy that makes the software and that
he doesn't have a swedish domain (.se) but only a german domain (.de)
because he's doing some fishy stuff with users computers. I tend to
not trust companies outside the US because that's where all the
trojans, viruses, and other bad stuff come from. Has anyone else had
simillar problems.

Gerry

 

[Lou Rehberger]

I have used ad-aware from lavasoft.com for awhile on my computer now
but have recently noticed that it causes my computer to lockup, even
when I'm not running it. It also causes me to get an error in IE that
shuts IE down. I also read a post, where someone said that it acts
like spyware itself because it reads your drive and sends the
information back to the swedish guy that makes the software and that
he doesn't have a swedish domain (.se) but only a german domain (.de)
because he's doing some fishy stuff with users computers. I tend to
not trust companies outside the US because that's where all the
trojans, viruses, and other bad stuff come from. Has anyone else had
simillar problems.

Gerry

No, I have not experienced any problems whatsoever with ad-aware!

Lou

 

[Sietse Fliege]

I tend to not trust companies outside the US because that's where all
the trojans, viruses, and other bad stuff come from.

+----------+
| PLEASE |
| DO NOT |
| FEED THE |
| TROLLS |
+----------+
| |
| |
.\|.||/..

 

[hyenapower]

nada

+----------+
| PLEASE |
| DO NOT |
| FEED THE |
| TROLLS |
+----------+
| |
| |
.\|.||/..

 

[donutbandit]

(e-mail address removed) (Gerry O) wrote in

I have used ad-aware from lavasoft.com for awhile on my computer now
but have recently noticed that it causes my computer to lockup, even
when I'm not running it. It also causes me to get an error in IE that
shuts IE down. I also read a post, where someone said that it acts
like spyware itself because it reads your drive and sends the
information back to the swedish guy that makes the software and that
he doesn't have a swedish domain (.se) but only a german domain (.de)
because he's doing some fishy stuff with users computers. I tend to
not trust companies outside the US because that's where all the
trojans, viruses, and other bad stuff come from. Has anyone else had
simillar problems.

Gerry

Far more likely that you have a virus causing your computer to lock up.

If you were using a firewall, you wouldn't have to worry about this or any
other program sending information out.

 

[Ben Cooper]

+----------+
| PLEASE |
| DO NOT |
| FEED THE |
| TROLLS |
+----------+
| |
| |
.\|.||/..

Don't take this the wrong way, but you have a nice ascii.

 

[Sietse Fliege]

Don't take this the wrong way, but you have a nice ascii.

How could I possibly take it the wrong way?

Anyway, the nice ascii I nicked.
But then, you could expect that from someone from outside the USA. ;-)

 

[Ben Cooper]

How could I possibly take it the wrong way?

Anyway, the nice ascii I nicked.
But then, you could expect that from someone from outside

the USA. ;-)

Oh no! And I saved it to my hard drive without first running
a virus scan!
Damn you, you evil foreigners!

 

[Allen]

Far more likely that you have a virus causing your computer to lock
up.

If you want to get precise, it's probably a virus of the flavor "Inept
User" causing the consistent system discomfort.

--
Allen http://theprawn.com

This is for the flowers, http://protempore.org/jarday
who have no appreciation
for beauty;
And the sheer ugliness of it all
will surely be lost on them.

 

[Sietse Fliege]

I'm sure you heard it before, but you have a nice smile yourself.

LOL

 

[Aaron]

Source, please?

This one appears to be a half truth.

http://www.coast-info.org/lavaresign.htm

KeithS

Aaron (my email is not munged!)

 

[techie]

I have used ad-aware from lavasoft.com for awhile on my computer now but
have recently noticed that it causes my computer to lockup, even when
I'm not running it. It also causes me to get an error in IE that shuts
IE down.

Sounds like it encountered a piece of adware that's rigged to blow the
system up if any of its components is removed - and then make it look
like ad-aware's fault. Wouldn't be the first time ad-aware encountered
this kind of problem.

I also read a post, where someone said that it acts like spyware
itself because it reads your drive and sends the information back to
the swedish guy that makes the software and that he doesn't have a
swedish domain (.se) but only a german domain (.de) because he's
doing some fishy stuff with users computers. I tend to not trust
companies outside the US because that's where all the trojans,
viruses, and other bad stuff come from.

Actually most adware and trojans originate from the US. They may be
inserted onto the Internet from other countries to avoid prosecution
under US laws but the money to develop and use them ultimately comes
from American marketing and data-mining companies.

Has anyone else had simillar problems.

Nope, but then I don't run Windows. However, I've used ad-aware and
spybot to fix a lot of my friends' Windows systems and they've been real
life-savers.

 

[Keenan P.]

nada

+----------+
| PLEASE |
| DO NOT |
| FEED THE |
| TROLLS |
+----------+
| |
| |
.\|.||/..

That's a terrible thing to say. It's like saying all Mad Cows come from
Canada.
POKO

 

[Aaron]

On 28 Dec 2003 11:38:21 +0800

Aaron> This one appears to be a half truth.
Aaron>
Aaron> http://www.coast-info.org/lavaresign.htm

What's half-truthful about it? I don't see anything there backing up
the assertion that they were "thrown out," as it talks about them
accepting Lavasoft's *resignation* and really doesn't give any hard
facts about the situation.

Unless someone can read between the lines for me.

Well that's why it appears to be a half-truth at least compared to all
the other allegations. It's possible that there are reasons for the
resignation (forced to resign?) beyond those given by Ad-aware itself.
Not that I know otherwise of course.




Aaron (my email is not munged!)

 

[Aaron]

Not even a half truth, just a resignation, their reasons given in
http://lavasoft.element5.com/news/press/

KeithS

Yes, that's what they say. But it wouldn't be the first time, someone
resigned for face saving reasons. There is probably a lot more they are
not telling us about the disagreement. But whether this supports the idea
that lavasoft installs spyware, I doubt it.







Aaron (my email is not munged!)

 

[Gerry O]

Sounds like it encountered a piece of adware that's rigged to blow the
system up if any of its components is removed - and then make it look
like ad-aware's fault. Wouldn't be the first time ad-aware encountered
this kind of problem.


Actually most adware and trojans originate from the US. They may be
inserted onto the Internet from other countries to avoid prosecution
under US laws but the money to develop and use them ultimately comes
from American marketing and data-mining companies.


Nope, but then I don't run Windows. However, I've used ad-aware and
spybot to fix a lot of my friends' Windows systems and they've been real
life-savers.

Yeah sounds weird how you would blame spyware, when it didn't detect
any. I know that ad-aware caused it. Also I just read that LAvasoft
was thrown out of COAST (Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology
Vendors) because they have issues of actually being spyware
themselves.

Gerry

 

[Aaron]

I would think -- though I may be wrong (there's always a first time
-- that the various anti-spyware applications would be monitoring the
other, similar applications just as diligently as they do the more
run-of-the-mill software.

No?

No. The problem is whenever, an antivirus, calls another antivirus , a
virus , 99% of the time it's a false positive due to it detecting some
signature in the database or in terms of behaviour. Eg HJT is detected as
suspicious by a few antiviruses.

The same thing has happened for antispyware software. There was a stink
about Pest Patrol (or perhaps it was something else..I don't really
remember) detecting stuff like Spybot as Ad-aware. It's very hard for
normal users to figure out whether it's really a false positive, or
really spyware.

Short of using a packet sniffer that is. But that's for geeks











Aaron (my email is not munged!)

 

[LMA]

I've been using Ad Aware for quite awhile now, along with Spybot S&D and I
have experienced NO problems whatsoever, if fact, have really worked and
been great.........getting rid of all that crap will prolong my hard drive
life somewhat, I believe....

I know that there's a message at startup on my Spy that says if Ad Aware is
set to scan archives, it can/may declare some of the Spybot files "spyware"
but these can be ignored....and this has never happened

Great programs both, no computer owner should be without either or both

LMA

 

[KeithS]

Source, please?


I tend to not trust
Source, please?

Also I just read that LAvasoft
was thrown out of COAST (Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology
Vendors) because they have issues of actually being spyware
themselves.

Source, please?

KeithS

 

[Aaron]

This has come a long way from the original post that started this, but
what the heck.

On 28 Dec 2003 14:38:00 +0800

Aaron>
Aaron> No. The problem is whenever, an antivirus, calls another
Aaron> antivirus , a virus , 99% of the time it's a false positive
Aaron> due to it detecting some signature in the database or in terms
Aaron> of behaviour. Eg HJT is detected as suspicious by a few
Aaron> antiviruses.

Actually, I didn't state my assumption clearly; what I meant was that
the various anti-spyware application *developers* (who *are* geeks
would be monitoring the other anti-spyware applications for suspicious
activity just as diligently.

Well, for one thing, nowdays antivirus sig databases are encrypted so
they cannot be scanned. Still, there's a limit to how much these people
can do or want to do, espically if they are not aware what their
competitors are up to. I suppose that was the idea of COAST.

On the less noble front, if a user believes that a rival product is
spyware and removes it, they wouldn't shred any tears would they?

So yes, while antispyware products don't treat each other any differently
in terms of scanning, the possibility of false positives can make
detection of malware in malware scanning products rather murky.

What might be nasty though, is if the bad hats exploit this general
knowledge that when a malware scans point to a anti-malware product it's
likely a False positive .......

(and I think
it's Spybot that alerts the user to that possibility when it detects
Ad-aware installations).

I believe there were several such cases (of one antispyware detecting the
other as spyware). You might be thinking of another case.





Aaron (my email is not munged!)