sounds like spyware to me...

2 things...
1st - go to google and download the google toolbar.... great software and it's free..... stops popups better than software I've (the company I work for) paid for!

2nd - go to download.com and get spybot search and destroy. Install it, update it and then run it... let it clean everything it finds.. great stuff

as for the IE "viewing pages over a secure connection problem" do this...

in IE (internet explorer) go to tools -> options and click on the advanced tab at the far right... 2nd from the bottom of that page is "warn when changing from secure to not secure mode" Uncheck that bad boy and that notification will go away...