Spyware work with Mozilla?

Discussion in 'SpywareBlaster & Other Forum' started by psaulm119, Oct 10, 2003.

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  1. psaulm119

    psaulm119 Registered Member

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    Does Spyware simply work with Mozilla, or does it only work with IE? I only use IE to acccess microsoft.com.
    Paul
     
  2. LowWaterMark

    LowWaterMark Administrator

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    Hi Paul,

    Not sure if you are asking about SpywareBlaster or SpywareGuard, so let's look at both...

    Some features of these two programs only work with IE, however, some of the more powerful features are independent of the browser you are running.

    SpywareBlaster's primary protection is the setting of ActiveX "kill bits" in the Windows registry, (those being for all the known ActiveX based spyware elements), and it is not related to any specific browser. However, the spyware cookie protection in SpywareBlaster is only good for IE6.

    SpywareGuard's main protection, the real-time scanning engine, is browser independent since it scans all .EXE files prior to their being allowed to run. But, the download protection and browser hijack protection only works with IE.

    I hope this helps,
    LowWaterMark
     
  3. psaulm119

    psaulm119 Registered Member

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    I was talking (or thinking?) about Spyware Blaster. I already have both browsers configured to reject third-party cookies, so I can live without that. It was the active-x element I wanted to get, to work in Mozilla. Thanks.

    Paul
     
  4. LowWaterMark

    LowWaterMark Administrator

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    Ah, good. Yes, the blocking/killing of ActiveX works across the board and is definitely worth using regardless of the browser you are running.

    Let us know if you have any others questions.
     
  5. psaulm119

    psaulm119 Registered Member

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    Lowwater, thanks for your time.

    Since you asked..... :)

    First--At the spywareblaster website, I saw a lot about Active-X. It seemed as if spywareblaster only worked on Active-X trojans. Is this true?

    Second--If question one is answered yes, then my next question would be-- are a huge percentage of trojans/worms/etc., running active-x? In other words, what percentage of the trojans out there can I expect spywareblaster to take on? I know this can be a hard question to answer, but a general guesstimate would be helpful.

    I'm sure this program has a light footprint, but tell ya the truth, I'm through my "install everything and then we'll use it if the situation ever comes up to use it" stage. My system is running very smoothly after a reinstall of XP, and i'd really like to only put on, what will be very helpful.

    Thanks.
    Paul
     
  6. LowWaterMark

    LowWaterMark Administrator

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    No problem. ;)

    Well, there's a lot written about ActiveX protection at the website because that is the key protection provided by SpywareBlaster, but, I wouldn't call it Trojan protection. While some ActiveX spyware is rather malicious, especially the "premium rate dialers" which could cost a person a lot of money on their telephone bills, SpywareBlaster is not an Anti-Trojan.

    Since the answer was not yes to question one... What I'd say here is that there are an awful lot of spyware items delivered / executed via ActiveX controls and SpywareBlaster targets as many as it can to prevent them from doing whatever they do, whether that is providing Ads, tracking your usage, hijacking your browser or allowing drive-by downloads of other spyware, including dialers.

    It's hard to recommend to someone else how valuable this program will be for them. The people who will find it most useful are probably people who do use IE6, and who like to leave their default settings a little loose so that they can enjoy nearly all websites they visit. (Meaning, they don't ever disable things like scripting and ActiveX in the Internet Zone of IE because they like all the flash and glitze many websites have by using these features.) An IE user with loose security settings will eventually (maybe only in minutes, depending upon surfing habits) hit a website that will bring down ActiveX related spyware. For them, SpywareBlaster is of very great benefit. It targets only malicious ActiveX leaving other entertaining ones alone.

    People with tight security settings may not need this protection. I fall into this second group. My default security settings are very tight. (So tight that a lot of what I see on the web are blank pages - period.) I've never had a drive-by install of any spyware, but, I still use SpywareBlaster. I wouldn't if it had to run in the background to provide its protection. But, because it's a run-once (well, once a week or so) program, I use it to set all the ActiveX kill-bits - just in case I do decide to lower my settings at a specific site to "see what's actually there".
     
  7. psaulm119

    psaulm119 Registered Member

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    Gotcha. Thanks again.
    Paul
     
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