29 May, 2011

Skype Hijacks You with EasyBits GO


I was just minding my own business just a few minutes ago when I received a notice from Skype.  I checked on it and it was asking me to give permission to some application.  I deny everything so I did this one too.  But it didn't seem to matter much to Skype since it:

1. LAUNCHED THE SOFTWARE
2. GAVE IT TOTAL ACCESS TO SKYPE
3. SOLD IT MY PSN ACCOUNT INFO
4. FED MY DOG CAT FOOD

The first two are totally true, the other two are conjecture but I bet it happened just like that.

What was this piece of malware?  It is called EasyBits GO and Skype is apparently partnering with them to treat your machine as its personal hack box.

EasyBits Go is the trojan horse and Skype is the hacker who wrote it.

So how do you get rid of this ridiculous piece of crap?  It is almost easy to remove its access from Skype and I will detail that below, but if you are more daring and wish to really get rid of it for ever (or until Skype decides to find ways around your security measures like some 12 year old hacking the Playstation Network), you should visit this site:

Go into Skype and click on Tools > Options > Advanced > Advanced Settings now look to the right and down and click on "Manage other programs’ access to Skype" and then click on Easybits Go and then "Remove" it.  Click "OK" and then "Save".

You will then want to shut down Skype and reboot your system.

Now, DO NOT open up Skype (no self respecting geek has Skype autostart!).  Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features (or Add or Remove Programs if you are lame and using old school Windows) and UNINSTALL THIS PIECE OF JUNK!

Then, because Skype and EasyGo are major douchebags and have made sure it stays on your system, go to:

C:\ProgramData\Easybits GO and DELETE THE FOLDER!

I mean the "Easybits GO" folder, not the "ProgramData" ... sigh.

If you continue to have issues, go complain to Skype.  They know about it and think you are all idiots who deserve to be shafted.