Why You Can't Afford to Ignore Spyware and Adware | Spyware and Viruses

By KrisPaulita
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A recent AOL/National Security Alliance study conducted in 354 homes found that 61% of users had spyware installed on their computers. Recent studies have also shown that 83 percent of computers are infected with some form of spyware and that 89 percent of consumers are unaware that they have spyware. Spyware can be devastating to both system performance and your privacy. Fortunately, existing security technology can keep this threat from damaging your computer, draining your productivity, and possibly even stealing your identity.

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) Your Web browser opens to a different home page

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) The "Favorites" list on your Web browser contains web pages that 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 very long time to boot, and runs more slowly than it used to.

It happens like this: while you're surfing the Web, tiny computer programs are hard at work behind the scenes--gathering information about what you do, who you are, and who your friends are. These programs compile this and other information, and transmit it to a covert host. On the other end, someone takes that information and uses it for the purpose of sending you spam email or delivering pop-up advertisements, or worse, uses it for the purpose of identity theft.

Spyware could be the greatest threat to ever hit the Internet. In its less insideous form it's called adware, and it's sent to your computer without you even knowing, usually as a part of some other program or utility. At first you may think that a few ads are a small price to pay for whatever tool you downloaded and installed, but think again. You probably agreed to a license to download that new tool, and that license agreement very likely allows the company that is sending those ads to sell any information that they gather to third parties. And along with that new software that you installed you also installd other software on your PC, software designed to compromise your system, eating up network bandwidth as it transmits data back to the originators. In no time at all you're killing pop-up windows with alarming frequency, your email inbox is stufed with spam and your system mysteriously crashes more than ever!

Because they are stand-alone programs, adware and spyware can be designed to do pretty much anything on your computer. They can track your browsing habits. They can also examine the contents of your hard drive, copy files from them, change registry settings, change system files, steal passwords and even steal credit card numbers that are stored on your system.

Getting rid of spyware can be difficult - since it lands on your system in any of a variety of ways and can affect your system in many different ways. It is highly advisable that you install anti-spyware software, but doing that alone will not provide you with a complete solution. Here are a few things that you can do to keep spyware from compromising your system:

1) Make sure that you kep your anti-spyware software up to date. Many spyware programs are identified and classified by anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Fixes are published.

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

3) Beware of email attachments. Spammers send out emails with attachments, attempting to trick you into clicking on them--but when you do, you get spyware.

4) If you use a firewall, disallow certain file types that are likely to be spyware, such as .exe or .vbs files, Java, or ActiveX.

5) Don't use Instant Messaging or Peer-to-Peer (P2P) sharing programs, or if you do, be extremely cautious while doing so--always know ahead of time what you are downloading and who it is from. These types of programs, while convenient, often serve as a conduit for spyware.

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