Avoid Spyware and Adware!

The newest and most annoying threats hitting us from the Internet now are called Spyware and Adware. It is a worldwide problem. Very often a person installs one of these programs themselves. Many of the most popular music and file-sharing programs, including KaZaA, BearShare, LimeWire, Morpheus, Audiogalaxy Satellite, Grokster and iMesh, will install spyware and adware which generate custom-tailored ads and will monitor your Internet activity. Or they come in the form of Internet helper tool bars, which include Bargain Buddy, Better Internet, ClearSearch, DotCom Toolbar, and CoolWeb Search. Most people don't realize they are installing additional software along with the cool new program they just downloaded. Worst of all, many of these programs will remain even after the original program is uninstalled. Just visiting a Web site or clicking on a Web ad can install an application that is spyware. This is called a "drive-by installation."

The main purpose of Spyware is just as the name suggests, to spy on what a user does on the Internet. They keep track of where you go, what you look at, what you buy, and some of these programs record the keystrokes you make on your keyboard. When an Internet connection is open the information that has been gathered is sent back to the creators of the Spyware program. Next Adware comes into play causing advertisement popups. These popups are often tailored to you based on what you have looked at and bought on the Internet, as reported by the Spyware.

And it gets worse. Some of these programs will open up a backdoor to the Internet allowing other Spyware and Adware programs to be installed on your computer without your knowledge; another kind of “drive-by-installation”. After this the ad popups become more frequent and can even occur when you are not on the Internet. To be most effective these programs are always running in the background using up valuable system resources, memory space and processor time. The resources of your computer are limited and as these Spyware and Adware programs increase they will slow your computer down to a crawl and it will eventually stop running. You will experience slow startup, your favorite applications will take forever to open up, the Internet will stop working, one system crash will happen after another, and then the computer will just stop running.

This is where the computer tech comes into play, cleaning up the computer - if it can be cleaned. The cost of this cleanup can be from $50 to $200 with the worst-case scenario being a $100 operating system reinstall with ALL data lost: word processor documents, letters, e-mail, address book, pictures, music, financial data, etc.

To avoid all this trouble is simple. Don’t install Spyware and Adware. Stay away from Internet helper tools, any search tool bars that are added the Internet Explorer page, shopping helper bars, free coupon tool bar, search helper tool bar. Do not download any program that claims to be able to speed up your Internet connection or speed up your downloads; it can not be done with a simple program. The speed of your Internet connection is limited to the speed of your modem and the telephone line you use to connect. There are web sites that charge a fee to increase your connection and download speed and they can do the job increasing your speed 15% to 20%. If it is FREE - question it; if it says it will help you - question it; if it pops up and says you may be infected, don’t click on it. If you do see a program that looks like it is something you could use, google it first. Go to www.google.com and do a search on that program and look over the hits you receive. If you see a lot of ‘help how do I get rid of this’ or links to computer cops or hints of Spyware it probably is not good. Don’t be easy, don’t be curious, and don’t be fooled.

You can fight back and keep your computer clean. The best way to protect against spyware is to run an application that identifies and removes it. These programs scan your hard drive for software that makes popup ads or collects your personal information, and also "cookies" used by ad companies to track which Web sites you visit. There are several good programs you can buy to help to protect your computer from spyware and adware infections. Unfortunately no single program will protect you from all attacks or from spyware from being installed on your computer. You also need a good AntiVirus program and a Firewall; Norton Internet Security is a good choice. A manual scan should be run at least once a week and then a list of the spyware found on your computer is shown and you choose what you want deleted; it is best to have all the items in the list removed. These spyware and adware programs are seen as legitimate applications and are covered under copyright laws so they cannot be deleted outright by an Anti-Spyware program like a virus being deleted by an AntiVirus program. Because of this you will need to do a manual scan each week to check for any new installs. You can’t become complacent thinking that you are protected. Be careful of what you click on while on the Internet and what you download or install.

A couple of good firewalls are:

Norton Internet Security 2004 this also includes AntiVirus.

ZoneAlarm a free download with a very good full version you can buy.

Some good Spyware and Adware protection programs that you can use are:

Pest Patrol

Spy Sweeper

AdAware

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Here is a short list of what not to install. There are at least 400 different threats.

180 Solutions

2020Search

Alexa

Aureate

Bargain Buddy

Better Internet

Bonzi Buddy

BrowserAid

Clario

ClearSearch

Clock Sync

Comet Cursor

CoolWeb Search

Cydoor

DotCom Toolbar

DoubleClick

Downloader-EV

DownloadWare

DrummerBoy

DSSAgent

e-Anthology

Flyswat

GAIN

Gator

Gator Wallet

HotBar

I-Look Up

KaZaA

Money Tree

MySearch

MyWay Search

MyWay Toolbar

N-CASE

PopStop

Power Scan

SaveNow

Search Assistant

Search Centrix

SideBar

SideFind

Smiley Central.com

SpyBan

SpyKiller

StopPop

SurfAssistant

TimeSink

TinyBar

Top Rebates

Toptext

Twain-Tech

Web3000

Webhancer

When U Save

When U Search

When U Sync

XXXToolbar

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