Spy versus Spitz

I am so happy to learn that someone is going after companies that install spyware, because I spent most of last week trying to get rid of a particularly nasty thing called Virtumonde that can hide from the MS Malware Removal Tool and Norton AntiVirus/Internet Security (thanks for nothing, you guys!). I don’t know anything about worms, viruses, or adware, so I hope this bug didn’t do any real harm—as far as I can tell, all it did was send me LOTS of pop-up porn and fake IE alerts.

I don’t know how I got it, because I never open attachments (except for Word documents from people I know) or download free stuff from anywhere.

Anyway, I finally installed Webroot Spy Sweeper, and that seems to have taken care of it. I haven’t had any creepy pop-ups for 2 days, so I think it’s gone for good, but I can’t be sure I’m completely safe after reading this:

“Spitzer's latest lawsuit also names Direct Revenue's former chief executive, Josh Abram. Spitzer said Abram told a distributor in an e-mail that ‘we have a very stealthy version of our adware product,’ adding that ‘these will not be caught.’"

Bastards!