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Spyware Can
Saturate Your Computer
Have you ever installed a plug-in to your internet browser only to
find out that it renders your browser a nuisance to use? Does your
computer system all of the sudden slow down for no obvious reason?
It could be because of something known as spyware and many
computers are very vulnerable to it. Not only are many computers
vulnerable to spyware but the occurrence of computers infected by
spyware is quite common. The InfosecWriters web site (www.infosecwriters.com)
reported on a survey conducted by the National Cyber Security
Alliance and America Online in 2004 that while over 90% of those
questioned had heard about spyware there were only just above 50%
who suspected their computers had spyware on them. Then, these
computers were scanned and in reality 80% of them were infected
with spyware. And many of them did not have only one spyware
software product installed but several. Most were averaging more
than 90 components installed on their computer with extremes of up
to 1,000 spyware components installed on just one computer.
Let’s take a look at what exactly is spyware. While there are
several definitions on the internet, spyware can best be summed up
as follows:
Spyware is software that alters your computer and changes how your
computer behaves thus changing the presentation to the user.
Spyware is typically installed on a computer without the knowledge
or permission of the user and will hide behind the scenes on the
computer while it works on the computer either changing it,
collecting information, or both. The intent of spyware is
typically not to do harm to your computer but to collect
information (like a user’s browsing habits) in order to facilitate
a targeted marketing campaign. It sometimes is also designed to
alter a web browser in order to advertise specific web sites. Your
web browser can also be altered by spyware to display specific
results on a search engine query.
Spyware today is designed to run on the Windows desktop operating
system and/or its favorite web browser Internet Explorer. Most of
what spyware does is take a look at the cookies stored in your web
browser from past visits to web sites and reports back your
browsing habits to some offsite server. This does not harm your
computer per se but it still concerns users because privacy is
being violated. There are also spyware applications that are
malicious in nature.
The solution to getting spyware off of your PC (or preventing its
introduction) is to get a good anti-spyware program. Since there
are many different spyware applications and new ones pop up all
the time, no spyware program is a panacea for spyware issues. And
just because a spyware product is mentioned here, it does not
indicate an endorsement of it. But here are a few tools used to
detect, prevent, and rid spyware from a computer:
Ad-Aware Professional created by LavaSoft. This company also
offers a freeware version of the program with reduced features.
Xoftspy by Pareto Logic
PepiMk Software makes product called “Spybot Search and Destroy”
McAfee Anti-Spyware
Pest Patrol Anti-Spyware
SpywareGuard by Javacool Software (this is freeware)
Keep in mind too that anti-virus programs do not typically handle
spyware. A solution needs to specifically state that it will
handle spyware. If your computer gets heavily saturated with
spyware, an anti-spyware solution may not work and you will have
to back up your system, clean your hard drive, and re-load
everything.
Article Source:
http://www.spywaretool.com |
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