Gain (Gator) ? The Virus
It just amazes me how there are companies out there, claiming to be legitimate businesses, who are distributing what can only be known as spyware, adware, malware, badware, and viruses. These companies get away with it due to obscure clauses and legal double-speak in their terms of agreements, if they bother to have one at all. Some websites will download unwanted spyware and badware on your computer without any consent from you at all. They claim that all of this information gathering has a legitimate purpose and that people are over-reacting. Some people do not know what a virus is. It is simply a program. Just like any other program you download and use everyday. It must be installed onto your computer. The difference between a virus and a legitimate program lies in the purpose for which it was created. A legitimate program was created to help you perform a task. A virus was created to harm your computer or steal information from you. The other difference is the first one is legal, the latter is not. A virus is legitimately defined as an executable program, however, any script or macro should be included in that definition in my opinion. If they are written with the intent of causing harm to a user?s computer or they are written and installed on a user?s computer in order to gather information on that user, then they are no better and no different than a virus, and should fall under the same laws that apply to viruses. If these programs like GAIN, Gator, and WinFixer are so legitimate, why are the techniques they use to install it on a user?s computer so sly? Why are they using these sneaky tactics, such as downloading it onto someone?s computer without disclosing what it actually is to the user in a clear manner? Why do they write their malware, badware, and adware in such a way as to have it resist your efforts to remove it from your computer? Your computer is something you bought and paid for. You have the right to decide what will be installed on your computer. Anyone who writes a program that resists your ability to choose to remove it is a violation of your rights. Our elected officials don?t know how to surf the web for the most part, let alone actually understand what the definition of a virus is and how to legislate against spyware and malware. Software companies who write legitimate programs lobby them to make sure they do not pass any laws that regulate the sale of software. Example: Name any other product or service where you must pay up front for it before you even see the contract you must sign and agree to before you can use it? Not only that, but large corporations support the use of malware, adware, spyware, badware, and viruses that gather information from users without their knowledge. They in turn buy that information to build their own consumer databases and use that information to sell you products. They pay to know what your habits are. As long as they are willing to pay for that information, companies like GAIN will continue to steal it from user?s and sell it to these companies. If you want to know how many programs on your computer are gathering information about you, you will need to get some type of spyware detection software. There are several available, however, be careful, some of those advertising the removal of spyware are actually installing it on your computer themselves. Make sure you do a search in your favorite search engine to find out about the brand of software you are thinking of downloading. If your computer is infected with Gator or GAIN, you may have to use anti-virus software to remove it. Many of the anti-virus companies have removal instructions on their website. If GAIN were a legitimate company and legitimate software, it?s highly doubtful it would have to be removed by an anti-virus program. I hope this article has been helpful to you. GAIN, WinFixer, and other programs that act in this unethical manner should be considered viruses and held accountable for the harm they do to your computer and liable for the time it takes to remove them. That?s my opinion. D. David Dugan is the president of DD&C (<a href=http://www.dugancom.com>http://www.dugancom.com</a>) and personally helps to maintain their computer support forum at <a href=http://forum.dugancom.com> http://forum.dugancom.com</a> as well as their Spyware Information site <a href=http://spyware.dugancom.com> http://spyware.dugancom.com</a>.
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Choosing Anti-Virus Software
There are a number of companies that provide software solutions to virus, Trojan, and internet worm attacks. It can be really confusing when you compare three different software packages from five different companies trying to find the one that is right for you. With that in mind, there are several very important things that you need to consider when choosing antivirus software: 1) How often/fast are the virus definitions updated. You want the answer to be “As soon as a new threat is found”. 2) Are the virus definitions updated automatically by the software? You want the answer to be “YES”. 3) Can you configure the software to check for updates every time you go online? You want the answer to be “YES”. 4) Is the software “smart” so that it can find viruses it doesn’t even know about yet? You want the answer to be “YES”. 5) Can it scan incoming and outgoing email automatically? You want the answer to be “YES”. 6) Can you configure it once to perform automatic scans of your entire computer on a regular schedule? You want the answer to be “YES”. 7) Does it provide a way to ‘clean out’ any viruses etc. that are found? You want the answer to be “YES”. Are upgrades to the software package performed automatically, regularly, and at no cost? You want the answer to be “YES”. There are a few major players in the field that you should know about in order to make an informed decision about which antivirus software solution to buy and use. There are Norton Antivirus, Trend Micro’s PC-cillin, and McAfee Antivirus. Sophos and Grisoft?s AVG are also very god choices. All of the top antivirus solutions will provide each of the eight points above (and more). There are quite a few smaller players on the market as well. In many cases they are quite good. However, most of the smaller players in this market don’t have the resources (yet) to keep up with constantly changing virus threats. For now I would recommend staying away from them. Not because they are poor products, but simply because they aren’t able to consistently provide each of the eight requirements above. The first few days after a new virus appears are often when it can do the most damage. The sooner you get an update the better. The big 3 will provide automatic updates to new threats usually within days of a new virus being found. Sophos and AVG are similar. Smaller players may take several days to provide updates, which are often not automatic. This should be enough basic information to help you on your way to choosing a good antivirus software. If you?d like to learn more first, there is plenty to read at http://www.antivirus-report.com/antivirus-software.html Learn about <a href="http://www.antivirus-report.com/antivirus-software.html">antivirus software</a> & how to protect your pc against trojan horses, spyware, computer viruses, etc. in the future. <a href="http://www.antivirus-report.com/nortons-anti-virus.html">Nortons anti virus</a>
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