Spybot

You may be looking for Spybot worm.

Spybot - Search & Destroy (sometimes known as Spybot-S&D) is a malware, spyware and adware removal program for Microsoft Windows. Like most malware scanners, Spybot-S&D scans the computer hard disk and or RAM for malicious software.

Spybot was written by German software engineer Patrick Michael Kolla, and is distributed by Kolla's company Safer Networking Limited. Development began in 2000 when Kolla, still a student, wrote a small program to deal with the Aureate/Radiate and Conducent TimeSink programs, two of the earliest examples of adware.

Spybot - Search & Destroy is currently released as freeware.

Spybot Features

Spybot is able to fix problems with tracking cookies, system internals, Winsock LSPs, ActiveX objects, browser hijackers, and can to some extent be able to protect user privacy, by deleting usage tracks. Spybot also includes an "Immunize" feature which can be used to block the installation of spyware before it occurs. Another tool included in Spybot is a file shredder, for the secure deletion of files. Spybot is not intended to replace anti-virus programs, but it does detect some common trojans and keyloggers.

As some programs which ship with attached spyware or adware will refuse to run should the unwelcome co-programs be removed, later versions of Spybot allow it to replace the spyware binaries with inert dummies (designed to fool those programs which insist on the spyware's presence).

To remain efficient against new threats the program needs to be updated and used frequently.

Spybot is available for all versions of Windows from Windows 95, and offers several different languages and skins to users.

Support is currently only supplied by means of internet forums, and some professional deployers have complained that they have been unable to resolve some of the complex Windows registry problems posed by Spybot's removal of some entrenched malware programs.