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.
Guy Starbuck is a tennis and golf playing, health oriented, coffee drinking writer and financial guru who writes for VoIPMaven.com, PhoneMaven.com, and SpywareTool.com.
