About Browser Parasites

What are parasites?

'Parasites' are unsolicited commercial software applications installed on your computer, usually without your knowledge - or consent.

Parasites work through your browser, assault you with unwanted advertising, spy on your web surfing habits, compromise your system's security and stability, and even alter the content and links that you see in web pages!

We ourselves became aware of parasites only after we noted a sharp decrease in our bookstore earnings while our bookstore traffic had increased more than three fold! 'Click-thrus' were up - but sales simply evaporated! This was traced directly to sales links being hijacked by parasite programs! If our experience is typical then the problem is enormous!

Few of these parasites provide any benefit to the user, indeed most users are unaware that they have parasites installed on their system at all!

Parasites may be grouped by names that best describe what they do:

adware
Unleashes a torrent of unwanted advertising banners, pop-ups, pop-unders, etc., on the lucky user. A "service" best described as a plague.
scumware
Adds advertising links to web pages, for which the page author does not get paid, and hijacks affiliate-program payments by substituting the page owner's affiliate identifier with another! Usually designed by people who hang out around school yards in their free time. Scum.
spyware
Watches everything the user does on-line and transmits that information back to marketing companies - or other interested parties.

Some of the other 'side benefits' of these programs are, they leave security holes whereby arbitrary code can be executed on the user's computer, and they degrade system performance and cause errors and crashes because they are usually badly-written.

How did it get onto MY computer?

Parasite programs are very deserving of their name for two reasons. First, as described above they survive on the work of others while contributing nothing in return. But secondarily because they arrive attached to other, often desirable software that you intentionally install.

MANY 'FREEWare' and 'ShareWare' programs that you buy on disk or download over the net include from one to several parasite programs that will silently install themselves as you install the software that you actually wanted. Many software vendors cannot resist the cash available to them for bundling their products this way. We think that you should resist using their products! As you can see, the term parasite has wide application.

Some parasites may also arrive in email. Unlike viruses, these usually announce themselves, albeit in less than honest terms!

And finally, many parasites install themselves on your system when you simply visit a web site that hosts them. These are known as 'Drive-by Installations'. Bet you thought that couldn't happen! It can...

So be careful what you install - you may get more than you bargained for!

Why don't anti-virus programs detect them?

Some do detect a few, but technically these programs are very different in their behavior and operation than viruses. To anti-virus software, most parasites appear to be legitimate programs or program library files.

As mentioned above, a common method of distributing parasites is to include them in the installers of Freeware, Shareware or downloaded 'utility' programs. Some might even appear in Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Software list! Unless an anti-virus program is specifically told to look for each one it will not find them - and most are not told to do so - yet.

How can I detect parasites?

For web hosts, there are several parasite detection scripts available that you can install in your web pages. Our favorite is parasite.js available from doxdesk.com, it is the one we use. You will find others through our Tech Links for this subject.

For your PC, there are several parasite detection and removal programs available from the internet. our favorite is Adaware from Lavasoft. Another is Spybot Search and Destroy. Once again, you will find many useful resources and informational web sites through our Tech Links.

What other resources are available?

There is a growing list of web sites that are devoted at least in part to providing information, services and products to fight this problem. You may find quite a few by browsing the links already given above, and following those resources to others. If you locate sources that we have not yet identified, please return to our site and submit a link to our Tech Links so that others may find it more easily.

But as usual, the best defence against those who exploit and enslave in any realm is always knowledge! Educate yourself and others about this insidious exploitation, withdraw your clicks and your business from those who distribute and profit from these programs, and be alert for each successive wave of variations - they are relentless...

It is in this spirit of vigilance that we provide this information - please recommend it to others.