Massive spyware ring uncovered. You may be effected by this.

[N.Bailey]

I highly recommend Spybot to be installed on all computers. This is a free program, and perfectly legitimate. It is a great tool for getting rid of any kind of spyware on your computer. If you have never ran a program to check for spyware, you will be very unpleasantly surprised how much you have.

It is also absolutely neccessary to have a virus protection program on your computer if you ever go online.

I agree and would also recommend Ad-Aware too. It's free too.

 

[LoveWDW]

The CWShredder program hasn't been updated since May. I thought that I had read somewhere that the folks behind this tool finally gave up trying to keep up with all the variants of Cool Web Search. No harm in running the tool, but don't be lulled into a belief that CWS will be completely removed from your system by running this program.

If your system continues to exhibit strange behaviour, you may have to look for Spybot S&D on the web to analyze your system and look for additional incarnations of CWS (and other spyware nasties).

It's a dangerous place out there. Microsoft just released a patch to close another security hole in Windows. Our IT department just sent out an urgent message to all employees to do a Windows Update immediately. If you haven't patched Windows recently, I might also suggest that you take the time to download the security patches. One way to do this is to click on the "Tools" tab in Internet Explorer and select the Windows Update option.

Gosh! This must be why my MS auto-update auto-updated yesterday.

I use spybot search and destroy also. It is free and easy to use. Just be sure to check for updates.

 

[Poohnatic]

Windows updated for me twice yesterday and once so far today, so I think they're doing another push on this patch.

Thanks for the info. I've been pretty good about running spybot and ad aware every week or so, but I'll be doing the shredder, too.

suzanne

 

[Aimee K]

Thank you. I have been having problems with some Java stuff, and this scan and removal just fixed it

 

[TigerCheer2009]

Thanks, Hound! This one got the all clear too!

 

[nativetxn]

Thanks for the head's up, Hound. I didn't have any CWS on my computer so I feel better now.

Katholyn

 

[callahanjulie10]

I am just not sure what I did exactly. I did push the button to remove the 1 item found but am not sure why my computer is now back to normal! Regardless, I am so HAPPY!!

 

[Lynn CC]

This may be of help...........

http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200508.mspx


I did this update, now when I restarted my computer it says I have Java Updates ready to download, should I do this too?

 

[Maleficent13]

All clear! Thanks!

 

[Disneyrsh]

I think my MIL's computer might have this, I'm subscribing to this thread so I can go over there this afternoon and run it. I'm her technical support. She's going to hate it that I found the solution on the dis-boards, she's very anti disney (says it's provincial)

 

[Jeff in BigD]

I assume this is a windows only problem?

 

[WDWHound]

I assume this is a windows only problem?

Most likely, but the folks that found it don't do Macs, so there is no way to be complete sure. Ceratinly cool web search is not a Mac virus.

 

[zagafi]

Ah, another day I'm happy to own a Mac.

 

[Danvers]

All clear, thank you!