Spyware that makes small children cry

My little three-year-old daughter loves to visit her personal screensaver, Disney's Sleeping Beauty. She sighs every time it opens, which is lovely and calming to see.

Then, one day, it happened.

We sat down as usual, started the computer, clicked her user account, and it opened to a tremendously explicit adult pop-up. I was so caught off guard I shrieked, and my daughter yelled, too! She kept asking, "Mommy, who is that?" and "What's wrong?"

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow a pornographic advertisement had hijacked Internet Explorer's default page. I can honestly admit I don't surf such sites nor open unknown e-mail, although it's possible another user could have opened a message or a link to a porn site by mistake. It also could have been one of those sneaky pop-ups that reverse the Yes and No buttons, so you're really installing something even if you think you've opted out.

I got rid of it by manually scanning the registry until I finally found the sucker. During that period, I had to restart, reset my home page, and empty the Recycle Bin many, many times. It took more than a week and countless hours of my time.

Talk about moments you'll never forget. That's a horror story from my house, for sure.

--Claire
New York, U.S.A.

As we pointed out in an earlier story, some forms of spyware are remarkably stealthy and can burrow into your machine even if you don't regularly download programs, open unknown e-mails, or browse questionable sites. As you pointed out, some of the more unsavory spyware makers pop up a box asking if you want to install something, then switch the buttons on you to fool you into putting their worthless programs on your PC. You might have saved yourself some time and effort by scanning your machine with antispyware software before you dug into the registry. Then again, this sounds like a pretty slippery piece of spyware you were dealing with, so it may have been a necessary step. After all, who wants to have to have the inevitable birds-and-bees chat with their children until the time is right?

--Download.com editors

Stories

• > Big Brother has your number (and your name)
• > The 180 Search Assistant runs amok
• > Not even a geek could slay this beast
• > Free music with a terrible price
• > The pitfalls of pornography
• > Spyware that comes out swinging
• > Think you're safe? Think again.
• > The seventh circle of spyware hell
• > Hey, shouldn't this be illegal?
• > Spyware that makes small children cry