There is nothing worse than a never ending stream of rogue anti-spyware programs and it feels like we do nothing more than run our anti-spyware software almost every day. Have we become that paranoid? Obviously we have, especially when the rogue program’s pop-ups trick us into thinking it officially came from Microsoft or a Windows program. Take IEDefender, one of the many that have hit the net over the last six months. IEDefender and its band of followers, catch a ride onto your computer system on the back of a Trojan virus or loads with a bunch of fake video codecs.
IEDefender works just like all of the other rogue anti-spyware software in cyber land, telling you that you have security issues and infections on your computer by presenting you with a grossly inflated list of spyware and malware that is supposedly on your computer. You get this list by caving in and allowing the program to scan your computer. It then tries to trick you into purchasing the full program which is another way of saying ‘give us your money and we’ll load more annoying crap onto your computer’.
When this program sneaks onto your computer, it starts out as the trial version. It doesn’t ask you for permission to load, it just does it. It then hijacks your system by changing your registry files, changing your browser settings to the point where your searches on Google, MSN, and Yahoo do not give you legitimate search results and possibly even stops your anti-spyware and anti-virus programs all together. Don’t you just love rogue anti-spyware?
One thing you need to be aware of is that the warning messages IEDefender sends up on your computer states that they are from Google, MSN or Yahoo usually appear when you are browsing. MSN, Google and Yahoo would never, ever send you a pop-up message such as this. They are web browsers and they do not function in this method. They are going to automatically assume you have anti-spyware on your computer.
Typically search engines are not privy to personal information off your system, but when IEDefender loads the full version of the program onto your computer, it could be sending information back to an unknown third party that will use it for less than legal purposes. That means your security has also been compromised and by this time, you could be finding yourself dealing with unauthorized charges on your credit card, computer hacking, and more. Do not fall into the trap of believing what IEDefender says about being the only program available to fix your computer and purchase this software.
If you ever discover this program on your computer you will need to use legitimate ant-spyware software like SpyZooka to remove it from you system. SpyZooka will identify the files and remove them for you. It’s better to use an uninstaller like SpyZooka because it will properly remove the files and repair your registry. If you try to remove the files by hand, you stand the chance of removing a crucial file that makes your system operate properly.
