I found this on another forum I visit and if you use Spybot Search & Destroy, you had better read this!! Apparently, Spybot has 4 spyware programs checked to ignore by default!!!! These four programs are: LSP.New.Net MySearch New.Net SideStep You can uncheck them in the advanced mode of Spybot. How do you use the advanced mode? Go to Mode then select Advanced. Then in the Settings tab go to Ignore Products, then All Products and search for the four above mentioned spyware programs and UNCHECK them. Be warned, everytime you update Spybot, these items will be checked by default!! So you will have to uncheck them everytime you update!! Below is the original post
The developer responds here While Spybot S+D is really good, it's not the only program you should use anyhow. A combination of S+D with Adaware and perhaps CWShredder usually takes care of 99% of the stuff you'll find.
I call those three programs, my Spyware Triumvirate!! You can get them all here: http://www.geekradio.com/spyware
Just because it's free doesn't mean it should be insecure... especially when it's a security program.
You're absolutely right. However, in both the program and the developers' defense, they have made their reasons for not blocking those known, and it's nothing malicious. Spybot doesn't block everything anyways, but it does a really great job at what it does block.
Probably nothing malicious, but what do you think about this guys post from the forum you linked... Do you think there is some validity to the idea that 'new.net' is written by the same guy who wrote the 'sasser worm' or is he just being dramatic?
The problem is if you give a list of things to block, you don't *assume* what and what not the user wants blocked without telling them so beforehand - especially not in a security app. If at any time something is considered spyware, it should be blocked.
I agree, but my point is that the developer has a reason for it, and while we may not agree with it, without it being open source, there's not much any of us can do about it. I'd hate to turn on the developers of Spybot after what a great program it is and has been for me/so many people because of a decision I/we disagree with. And we can say "well, you expect it to block spyware without exception", but it doesn't do that anyways, even without this recently discovered allowance. Spybot doesn't get rid of all spyware anyways. As it is, you really NEED to use both Adaware and Spybot S+D, regardless. Would we be maligning the developers if these things weren't blocked by the program, not by the explicit exception, but just because it doesn't block them?
I meant that its nothing malicious on the Spybot S+D Developer's part, not the program that it lets through. I agree that what it lets through is suspect.
But I'm not saying it should block ALL spyware because it can't - just like no one antivirus tool is going to catch all viruses. What I was saying is that the def file for Spybot already catches the excluded patterns - it does catch those, yet the developers took it upon themselves to exclude it. That is BS. I'm not giving up on Spybot - I've used it for a few years now and recommended it often, but I still think this was a silly mistake on the part of the developer.
