Cyber terrorists iDownload/iSearch get response from one of their victims.  Suzi at Spyware Warrior replies.

QUOTE ("Suzi")
In response to the Cease & Desist letter I received from iDownload/iSearch, I sent the following response.


Re: Incorrect Classification of iDownload's Product as Malware & Related disparagement of iDownload

Dear Mr. Hopkins:

This letter is in response to your letter to Domains by Proxy dated February 10, 2005 wherein you named several domains, including www.netrn.net, and requested that any reference to iSearch as malware or spyware be removed.

I have done a thorough search of my site and found only the following references to iSearch:

1.
This link contains a list of updated definitions as published by Lavasoft, the makers of Ad-Aware. The original list is posted here:
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=32129&st=0&#entry238929

2.
Again, this link contains a list of updated definitions as published by Lavasoft on their forum here:

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=30957&st=0&#entry231561

3. http://netrn.net/spywareblog/archives/2004/04/14/more-ad-aware-updates/
Again, this link contains a list of updated definitions as published by Lavasoft on their forum here:

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=24278

4. http://netrn.net/spywareblog/archives/2004/03/28/spywareblaster-update/
This page contains a listing of newly added definitions to SpywareBlaster, which can be found here:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

You will note that I made no personal comments about iSearch or any of the other items in the lists. I merely copied information that was posted elsewhere If you have a complaint with your product being listed and targeted by Lavasoft and Javacool Software, you should contact them directly.

You also stated:
"Specifically, a recent review of materials disseminated by your company, via the Internet, revealed that your company is falsely disparaging iDowload's product, iSearch, in that Domains by Proxy, Inc. classifies the product as Malware and articulates that,

"iSearch "Desktop Search" hijacker.."
"iSearch is unidentified malware.."

That is simply untrue; I made no such statements anywhere on the netrn.net domain. Moreover, even the program update notices described above that were reproduced on my web site include no such statements-they merely list the name of your company's programs. If you will insist that such statements are included on my web site, please supply URLs for the pages you believe include those statements.

Should you decide to pursue a complaint against my site, perhaps you should be aware of the California anti-SLAPP legislation:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/ccp/425.10-425.16.html
http://www.thefirstamendment.org/antislappresourcecenter.html

The Cease & Desist letter you sent to me as well as any further complaints to me will be submitted to ChillingEffects.org for review and publication:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/

In summary, after reviewing my site, I have concluded that your allegations and requests are based on inaccurate, false information and are thus completely unwarranted and utterly without merit.

Yours truly,

Suzi

Wonderful response Suzi......you go girl!!!  They have given themselves a far worse black eye with this recent terrorist rampage than any of the sites they have attacked ever could have.  Never give in to terrorists!!!!!!

               - Weekly report on viruses and intruders -
   Virus Alerts, by Panda Software (http://www.pandasoftware.com)

Madrid, February 18, 2005 - Two variants of Mydoom -AO and AM-, two variants
of Gaobot -DAC and CYK-, and Bropia.J are the subjects of this week's
report.

Mydoom.AO appeared midweek and has the capacity to spread much more rapidly
and widely than the majority of computer viruses. The reason for this is
that it uses Google, Altavista, Yahoo and Lycos to search for email
addresses to which to send itself. In order to trick users, it sends out
emails that that pass themselves off as mail delivery error messages.

The email messages carrying Mydoom.AO include and attachment -which contains
the worm's code- with one of the following extensions: ZIP, COM, SCR, EXE,
PIF, BAT or CMD. If the user runs the attached file, the worm will create
several copies of itself on the affected computer under the name JAVA.EXE,
and look for email address in the Windows address book, in temporary
Internet files and in files with the certain extensions. Then it selects the
domain names of the addresses it has collected and enters them as a search
term in Google, Altavista, Yahoo and Lycos. Then Mydoom.AO sends itself out
to all the addresses found. This worm also creates several entries in the
Windows Registry in order to ensure that it is run whenever the affected
computer is started up.

The second variant of Mydoom in today's report is AM, which spreads in email
messages with variable characteristics and through the peer-to-peer (P2P)
file sharing programs KaZaA, Morpheus, eDonkey2000, iMesh and LimeWare.

In the computers it infects, Mydoom.AM ends the processes belonging to
certain security tools, such as several antivirus programs and firewalls,
leaving the affected computer vulnerable to the attack of other malware.
This worm also modifies the HOSTS file, in order to prevent access to the
websites of several antivirus companies and ends the processes belonging to
other worms, such as Netsky, Bagle, Sobig and Blaster.

Gaobot.DAC and Gaobot.CYX are two worms that use several means of
propagation, including the follow:

- They make copies of themselves in the shared network resources they manage
to accesses.

- To spread across the Internet, they exploit security flaws, like the LSASS
and RPC DCOM vulnerabilities, for which Microsoft has already released the
patches that fix them.

The DAC and CYX variants of Gaobot have backdoor characteristics that allows
hackers to gain remote control over the affected computer and carry out
actions such as executing commands, downloading and running files, logging
keystrokes, stealing different information from the computer, launching
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, etc.

We are going to finish this week's report with Bropia.J, a worm that spreads
via MSN Messenger. When it is run, this malicious code tries to display an
HTML page that contains a link to a certain web page in order to display an
image. Bropia.J also prevents the user from accessing the Task Manager and
the Windows Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE file).

For further information about these and other computer threats, visit Panda
Software's Encyclopedia:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia/

Additional information

- DoS / Denial of Service: this is a type of attack, sometimes caused by
viruses, that prevents users from accessing certain services ( in the
operating system, web servers etc.).

More definitions of virus and antivirus terminology at:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/glossary/default.aspx

Hey it's my birthday!!! Please no applause, just send money. LMAO  I woke up at fourish (am) with the aching back and neck, so I got up.  Now I feel like going back to bed.  It still isn't daylight. I took a dose of Ibuprofin and I think that is making me a bit tired.

Well, my biggest present was getting told I would get a housing voucher soon!  That is going to save my life and sanity.  I have to get out of my mother's.

I also need a job and am working on finding one of those.  But the dead of winter in Montana is not the most optimum time for job hunting.  Perseverance will eventually win out.