Spybot Search & Destroy is among the
trailblazing anti-spyware programs. It
has been around since 2002. It has free
and frequent updates of definition
files. It has some excellent features
not available in Ad-Aware or Windows
Defender. Best of all, it was created
and is maintained by a humble German
programmer named Patrick M. Kolla who dedicates his software to
a woman whom he calls the "Most
Wonderful Girl on Earth."
Scanning, Real-Time Protection and
Immunization
Spyware Search & Destroy is superb at
discovering spyware, malware, adware,
trojans, dialers and browser hijackers on your
system (don't worry if you don't know
what all of those are, as long as you
know that they're bad). In my experience, only Ad-Aware
finds more spyware. But it has two features that
the free version of Ad-Aware doesn't:
Real-time protection and Immunization.
Immunization is a unique feature to
Spybot. It puts a layer between Internet
Explorer and Internet sites that blocks
known threats from even showing up in
web pages. These threats
include bad ActiveX controls embedded in
the web page, downloadable programs and
the worst tracking cookies that collect
your browsing habits as you surf from
site to site.
Real-time protection is provided by a
component called "TeaTimer." It
continuously monitors your system for
known malicious programs and prevents
them from running if detected. TeaTimer
also alerts you if any program attempts
to change key parts of your system
configuration (registry) and prompts you
to accept or deny the changes.
This latter feature is one that can
be a bit intimidating to the average
Windows user. My best advice is to look
at the name of the program making the
change. If you recognize the program and
trust it, allow the change. Otherwise,
deny the change.
Not Intimidated by Spyware Lawyers
A recent trend spyware peddlers have
embraced is filing lawsuits against
anti-spyware software. They will claim
that their pop-up ad laden, keylogging,
browser-hijacking, surf-tracking
software isn't actually spyware.
Furthermore, they claim, their
"customer" agreed to allow the spyware-like
behavior when they visited their
website. Since their business model
relies on their customers agreeing to
spyware-like behaviors, they say they
will sue for damages.
This has actually worked.
Patrick M. Kolla, maker of Spyware
Search & Destroy, however, lives in Germany
under a whole different set of laws.
In fact, his sway seems to work in
the opposite direction. He was
responsible for getting Apple to do an
about-face on
a new iTunes feature that was being
a little
too aggressive in collecting data on
your music choices.
Software with a Heart
The hard-working guy behind the
software puts the heart in it. He
dedicates the software
to the "most
wonderful girl in the world" who
goes by Sandra Klass. A Google search
shows a
London actress with that name,
though I'm not sure it's her. Isn't
young programmer love great?
