AboutCarolyn Meinel Expertise I cover Windows, Unix, TCP/IP and Ethernet security questions. I do not cover Mac, Palm Pilot, or other networking issues.
Experience Books by Carolyn Meinel: wrote a chapter for The Hacking of America book (see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567204600/happyhacker)
My article Code Red for the Web for Scientific American was reprinted in the book Best American Science Writing 2002 (see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060936509/happyhacker). My book The Happy Hacker: A Guide to Mostly Harmless Hacking is now in 4th edition with a Japanese edition (see http://happyhacker.org/hhbook/).
Question HELLO
IT LOOKS LIKE MOST ANTI VIRUS ANTISPYWHERE PROGRAMS
DONT WARN YOU IF YOU JUST PICKED UP A SPYWHERE BUG DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONES DO AND NONE OF THEM TELL YOU WHERE THAT VIRUS AND SPYWHERE CAME FROM
Answer Zone Alarm Pro (www.zonealarm.com) tells you what spyware and adware programs it has removed and whether they are low, medium or high threats. Also if you set it to pop up a warning the very instant your computer is attacked, then you can click on a link from that popup to go to the Zone Alarm website to read more about this threat. The popup also shows the Internet address from where the attack came.
To learn even more about threats to your computer, the websites for many Internet Security programs tell you as much as is known about these dangerous programs. We call them "malware" to cover everything -- virus, Trojan, spyware, worm etc. -- that can harm computers. Since the same malware program my be given different names by different security programs, I've found that the best way to research one is through Google. It will direct you to those security companies that have writeups on that particular malware. Some of them also give the names other companies use for the same malware, so you can then search those names to learn more.
In the end, however, the problem with malware is that it is produced by criminals, in some cases by sophisticated crime syndicates. They are very good at hiding so you'll rarely know who exactly is responsible for attacking your computer, unless the bad guys bet arrested and you read about them in the news.
