Yet another adware infection discovered

Dec 10, 2007 14:54 GMT  ·  By

The adware programs are usually extremely annoying, as they display lots of advertisements and pop-up windows without users' approval. In most cases, the consumers can remove them easily by installing an antivirus solution or simply an adware remover. But, what if your security solution is not able to discover the latest threats and clean your computer? That might be a problem, so the only solution would be to keep an eye on the news in order to find information about the latest threats and the ways to remove them.

Today's subject: Dope Wars. According to security company 2-Spyware, Dope Wars acts just like any other adware infection, as it attempts to show commercial adverts without the consumer's authorization.

"Dope Wars is a typical adware program that shows annoying advertisements without asking for user permission. It can be installed by unsafe web sites or ad-supported software. The infection symptoms are constantly appearing pop-ups or web browser windows containing commercial advertisements. Dope Wars also may modify some system settings and violate user privacy", the security company wrote in the security notification.

Usually, this adware can be discovered by looking in the Task Manager Windows function and search for the dopewars2.exe executable file. 2-spyware.com gave a 44/100 severity scale, so the adware is not so dangerous as it may seem. However, extra caution is recommended, as it can easily be deployed on your computer without any user interaction.

Usually, the adware infections attempt to modify some Windows settings, in order to display several advertisements when some actions are triggered. For example, the commercials can be displayed once the user opens Internet Explorer or any other browser installed on the system. In addition, they can appear once the user types certain words on search platforms, or when specific websites are loaded.