Here’s an e-mail question Ms. Ducktoes recently received: Ms. Ducktoes, I’m receiving spam from my own address. Does this mean my e-mail account has been hacked? Is my computer in jeopardy? Do I have spyware or viruses? Dedicated Ducktoes Reader David Dear David, No, you have not been hacked and this e-mail spam doesn’t mean [...]

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Ms. Ducktoes is really busy removing spyware and replacing power supplies today, but I’ve noticed an influx of this new worm. So I thought I should warn you. It’s called the Downandup/Conficker worm. Millions of computers are infected. To avoid getting it, turn off Autoruns on your computer. Click here to learn how to turn [...]

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Ms. Ducktoes really feels for the readers whose computers have the Hallmark card virus. So many of you are still coming to this blog for a fix. This has been going on for months. Since so many of you are still getting infected, today I went on-line to do a more research. I was wondering [...]

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Sometimes computer repair jobs turn into something else. Sometimes Ms. Ducktoes is sitting quietly, concentrating on a computer and the client starts to talk, and before Ms. Ducktoes can say, “I think your hard drive is going bad,” she finds herself in the middle of a sensitive personal disclosure. Other times people request services that [...]

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A botnet uses spyware and malware to lure you into being one of its zombie computers. And then uses your computer for spamming, storing credit card numbers and other personal data such as passwords and account numbers, distributing illegal types of porn, and creating a its own captive and huge search and advertising network. If [...]

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There’s a new USB worm about. It loads on your computer when you stick an infected USB drive (Flash memory drive) into a USB port or an infected CD into the CD drive. Since it installs through the Autorun function on Windows, this type of worm is easy to prevent. Simply turn off Autorun. To [...]

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This year Ms. Ducktoes has added more free anti-spyware to our regulars: Spybot and Ad-Aware SE, which have been on our best anti-spyware list for years. At Ducktoes we fight spyware on computers everyday and these are our the most potent and useful. 1. Malwarebytes Our top best free anti-spyware of the year is this [...]

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The worst spyware of 2008 (in my experience) is certainly Windows XP Antivirus 2008/2009 or one of its many variations. This malware invades a computer in one of many ways, usually bundled with a video codec, or freeware or shareware, or sometimes when you accidentally go to (drive by) a bad website. Infected computers display [...]

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