Spyware: Destroying Your Computer System and Your Privacy At Once

It can sometimes be difficult to tell if spyware or adware has been installed on your computer. A good rule of thumb is this: if you have not taken steps to actively prevent the installation of spyware on your computer, it’s likely that your system is infected. A few signs that your system is infected with spyware include:

1) When you open the web browser on your computer, it opens to a different home page than it should.

2) Your system’s desktop has extra icons on it and you have no idea how they got there, or your browser has an extra toolbar on it that you did not install.

3) Your web browser’s “Favorites” list contains web pages you did not put there

4) As you are browsing, you notice an unusually large number of pop-up ads. Often the pop-ups are completely unrelated to the sites that you are browsing.

5) Your system takes a lot longer to boot, or operates slower than usual.

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Here’s an example of how your system gets infected: while you’re browsing your favorite sites on the web, small executables are at work behind the scenes, gathering information such as what you are doing, who you are and who your friends are. Once they gather this information they transmit it to a server somewhere on the internet. Once there, someone takes that information and uses it to spam you, or to send pop-ups to your screen. Worse, they may use that information to compromise your identity or to steal from you.

This is spyware, at it could be the greatest threat to ever hit the Internet. In the less obtrusive form it is called adware, and it’s sent to your computer system, usually without you even knowing, as a part of some other program or utility. You may initially think that suffering through a few ads is a small price to pay for that neat new game or tool that you downloaded. Think again! You probably agreed to a license to download that neat new game, and it very likely allows the company that sent it to you to sell any information that they gather to third parties. And while they were installing that neat new game, they also installed other software onto your PC, which will compromise your system and devour network bandwidth as it transmits data back to the originators of the adware. Next thing you know, you are killing pop-up windows every ten seconds, your email inbox is filling up with spam and your system crashes way more than it ever did before!

Because adware and spyware programs are stand-alone programs, they can be designed to do just about anything on your computer. Not only can they track your browsing habits, they can also be designed to examine the contents of your disk drive, copy files from them and transmit them elsewhere on the network, change system files, change registry settings, steal passwords or even credit card numbers if they are stored on your system.

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Getting rid of spyware isn’t easy, since it comes into your PC through any one of a variety of techniques. Installing one of the new “anti-spyware” software packages is a start, but these single-point solutions won’t provide you with a comprehensive fix. Here are a few tips on how to keep spyware at bay:

1) Keep your anti-virus software up to date. Many (but not all) spyware programs are classified by anti-virus packages as Trojans, and will be caught by the anti-virus software.

2) Many spyware applications launch automatically when certain web pages are visited – porn sites are notorious for containing spyware. URL filters will prevent users from accessing web sites that are likely to contain spyware. Install a URL filtering solution.

3) Be especially wary of email attachments from unknown senders. Spammers email attachments in an attempt to trick you into clicking on them. When you do – you get a special delivery of spyware.

4) Install and use firewall software to disable the delivery of the types of content to your system that are potentially spyware such as .exe, .vbs, Java or ActiveX applications.

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5) Don’t use Internet Messaging or Peer to Peer file sharing programs. If you decide to, be carefull while doing so. Always know ahead of time what you’re downloading and who it’s from. These types of programs are notorious as conduits for spyware.

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Tags: Computer Spyware, pop up ads, security software, software technology, spyware and adware

Category: Computer Spyware