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I just had, by mistake, a plug-in called Intelligent Explorer
attach to my browser. What a nightmare! I have another article
on this topic, but this brings home a point. Spyware or adware
items are continually infecting computers. Most computers
have no protection from them. Most frightening is the frequency
of them. From the InfosecWriters web site, "According to a
2004 survey by America Online and the National Cyber Security
Alliance, 91% of users questioned were familiar with the term
spyware. Only 53% believed their computers were infected,
but a scan found that 80% of their PCs had some type of spyware
installed on them." It goes on to say, "...The average number
of spyware components per computer was 93 with one computer
having well over a thousand."
What is Spyware?
Butte College (www.bctv.butte.edu/support/spyware.html)
offers this definition:
"The term 'spyware' is broadly defined as any program that
gets into your computer without permission and hides in the
background while it makes unwanted changes to your user experience.
Spyware is generally not designed to damage your computer.
The damage it does is more a by-product of its main mission,
which is to serve you targeted advertisements or make your
browser display certain sites or search results.
At present, most spyware targets only the Windows operating
system (Internet Explorer)."
To be fair, spyware can be harmless, for example tracking
cookies don't do much. While such things infringe on your
privacy, they don't really harm anything. Others, however,
are extremely dangerous.
So what do you do about it?
No spyware program seems to do everything, but there are a
lot of goods solutions out there that can help. Here is a
list of some of the top Spyware tools to look at:
Anonymizer Anti-Spyware detects and removes spyware, adware and trackware from your PC. Only $29.95 from Anonymizer.
1) Try Ad-Aware 6.0 Professional from LavaSoft (there is also
a free version with less functionality)
2) Spybot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software
3) Xoftspy form Pareto Logic
5) Spyware Guard from Javacool Software is a free program
4) Pest Patrol (now part of Computer Associates by acquisition)
5) McAfee Anti-Spyware
One thing is for certain: you do need to take spyware seriously.
For some reason, too many people out there think anti-virus
solutions are the end-all solution. They are not.
And, when all else fails?
Finally, as drastic as it seems, if your computer has been
infected with a large number of spyware programs, the only
solution you may have is backing up your data, and performing
a complete reinstall of the operating system.
For more Information go to PCCompterInternetSecurity.com
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