On December 22, an Internet investigator got a tip that child pornography was being housed on an adult Web site. When he visited the site to verify the information, he didn't find any illegal images. But what he did find was a Trojan horse that disabled the ActiveX security controls on his browser and took control of it.

"I heard my hard drive churning and clicked on my task manager and saw three executable programs were installing themselves," says Chris Brandon of Brandon Internet Services. "I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't get my task manager to cancel the programs."

By the time he checked his registry, the Trojan had installed dozens of programs that replaced the default Web page with its own, and loaded its own IP addresses in his favorite places, short cuts and safe zones. When he tried to erase the programs and reboot the machine, the virus reinstalled.

By Deborah Radcliff at PC World.

[ Read more ]

Related items

• Software: Ad-aware SE Personal Edition
• News: From anti-spam to anti-spyware (9 January 2004)
• News: Security fears over spyware (23 December 2003)
• News: Dell to techs: don't help customers remove spyware (3 December 2003)
• News: No easy solution to spyware (19 November 2003)
• News: Are you being watched online? (14 November 2003)
• News: Which adware and spyware are the most insidious? (28 October 2003)
• News: After Trojan Horses and worms, here comes the Beast (20 October 2003)
• News: Students toil as spyware hunters (6 October 2003)
• News: Escape the spyware nightmare (12 September 2003)
• News: Nothing is secret with spyware lurking in PCs (1 July 2003)
• News: Sneaky software hijacks more browsers (6 May 2003)
• News: Spyware - silent enemy (28 April 2003)
• News: Spyware: It's Lurking on Your Machine (3 April 2003)
• Review: Ad-aware 6.0 Professional (20 March 2003)
• News: The Best Spyware Stopper (7 March 2003)
• News: Spyware found in 30% of European businesses (11 February 2003)
• News: Closing spyware loopholes (25 October 2002)