Interview with Merijn Bellekom
Bellekom is the Creator of the Popular HiJackThis Software
I was interested in what the thought process is when someone decides to tackle something as big as spyware, so I spoke with Merijn Bellekom, creator of HijackThis.
I've been cleaning computer systems for many years. In that time, I have found several tools that I use on a consistant basis. The three I use most often are Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, and HiJackThis.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Merijn Bellekom, the creator of HijackThis and the man who single-handedly took on CoolWebSearch and all the other little nasties we love to hate. He was very forthcoming about his reasons for coding this project, why he made it free, and even shares a little bit about what is in store for the future.
Michael Simpson: When did you first start coding?
Merijn Bellekom: When I was about 10. My dad was a doctor and got into computers pretty quickly and led to my own curiosity. I had access to a 486 system, it had Visual Basic 3.0 on it. I clicked the icon once out of curiosity.
M.S.: I understand you are going to school. What type of degree are you currently pursuing?
M.B.: I already have a MSc in Chemistry but it wasn't what I was really hoping for. So now I'm working on my MSc in Information Science at the University of Utrecht.
M.S.: You started coding at a young age. How many coding languages do you currently know?
M.B.: I know VB, VB.NET, C, C++ and Java. I also know a handful of scripting languages such as ASP and PHP. If you know VB and C, you can learn everything else pretty easily.
M.S.: In what language is HiJackThis written?
M.B.: Visual Basic 6. I know the language was phased out by Microsoft a short time ago and is therefore obsolete. However it's the one I started in and it's also one of the few that works without the .NET framework, allowing backwards compatiblity to Windows 95 and NT4.
M.S.: Why did you go the freeware route for HJT?
M.B.: I figured since the malware was free, the fix should be also.
M.S.: Do you ever see the time when you might charge for HJT?
M.B.: I plan to make HJT 2.x free for personal use, but not for commercial use.
M.S.: What was your main motivation for building HJT?
M.B.: Years ago, back on the Cexx.org boards, there were alot of people coming into the forum with spyware infections with several commonalities. However they took alot of time to troubleshoot and fix, since everything had to be done manually. Mike Healan of Spywareinfo.com had already written a guide to removing a browser hijacker from the system. Back then, Mike was way ahead of everyone else. I simply took his guide and made a program that automatically checks all the locations his guide listed. As time went on I kept adding checks that were getting popular with malware writers.
M.S.: What's next for HiJackThis?
M.B.: I'm not exactly sure. Currently I'm working on one last update before HJT goes to 2.0. After that it should be quiet for a little while, since I want to do a complete overhaul of the entire User Interface and search engine. I want to apply some of the things I've learned in school.
M.S.:Ive read a number of articles where people say that it is safe to remove everything HJT finds. Would you say that is accurate?
M.B.:No, no, no. Absolutely not. HJT doesn't differentiate between 'good' items and 'bad' items, so "fixing" it all would disable numerous system components and probably cripple your system by disabling printer drivers, custom graphics card utilities, antivirus programs, firewalls etc. Do NOT fix everything HijackThis finds after a scan. After running HiJackThis If you have questions about what can or cannot be removed safely, you can check out Merijn's log tutorial or post your log file to one of the forums listed in his Help Forums.
M.S.: Do you expect Vista to have any issues with HJT?
M.B.: Not by design, but I already heard from one Vista (beta) user that it throws up an error about 'compatibility issues' and refuses to run HijackThis. No idea if this is specific to HijackThis, or to applications that access the Registry, or even a whitelist issue. I've already contacted Microsoft about this but haven't received a response so far. Documentation on the error is meager so I have no idea how to fix this right now. Hopefully more people will run into the problem as we near the release of Vista, so a solution will be found quicker.
M.S.: Would it be helpful if some of my readers would help out?
M.B.: That would be very helpful. I don't have access to Vista currently. But it would be nice if those who do could test out HJT on thier systems.
Beta Testers Needed
As it turns out, Merijn needs our help. He needs people who are beta testing Vista RC1 to let him know what kind of errors you are receiving when running HJT. To that end, he asks that you email the errors you get along with the system configuration you are running to hjt.vista.beta@gmail.com .
