Posts Tagged ‘spyware protection’
As if viruses and hackers weren’t enough to worry about, today’s web surfer now has to defend their computer against spyware as well. Although you may have figured out from its sinister name that spyware is considered a Bad Thing, you may be hazy of the details of what exactly spyware is, what it does, how it gets on your computer in the first place, and how to protect your computer from spyware. This article will seek to answer these questions.
What Is Spyware?
Spyware is a program that gets installed on your computer without your knowledge or permission. It runs silently in the background of your computer, unnoticed but malicious.
What Does Spyware Do?
Spyware programs collect information about you from your computer, and then sends that information over the internet to a third party. Spyware basically comes in two varieties.
The less harmful spyware collects personal information about your internet usage—what websites you visit and how often, what you buy online, etc. It then sends it over the internet to a specific company. The company uses this information about you to create marketing campaign targeted specifically at you, spamming you with unsolicited email and popup advertisements for various products. Other spyware will hijack your web browser and change the settings, such as your home page and search page. Although all these things are more annoying and irritating than actually harmful, many people consider it an invasion of their privacy.
The more malicious spyware tries to collect confidential information about you, such as user names and passwords, addresses and phone numbers, order and account numbers, and even bank account and credit card numbers. It then transmits this information over the internet to a person who will use it for identity theft.
How To Tell if You Have Spyware on Your Computer?
Some signs of a spyware infection are more obvious than others. If you get spontaneous pop-up advertisements seemingly at random, if you suddenly have a home page and don’t remember changing it, or new toolbars appear in your browser that you didn’t install, you may have a marketing spyware infection.
More subtle and malicious spyware programs try as hard as they can to not be noticed. Spyware programs, however, use up your computer’s system resources, such as memory and processing power, leading to computer instability and performance problems. If your computer suddenly runs slower than usual, starts hanging up or freezing, or randomly reboots, you may have a stealth spyware infection.
How To Protect Your Computer From Spyware
First, install a pop-up blocker to prevent spyware pop-up windows from appearing. The latest versions of both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox have built-in pop-up blockers, and it is free for you to upgrade to the latest versions.
Next, if a software installation box appears unexpectedly, asking if you want to install a program, say no. If you are purposefully installing a program that you know and trust, then it’s okay. But if you aren’t trying to install a program and an installation box appears anyway, and don’t know what the program is or what it does, always say no.
Finally, the best protection is to download and install an anti-spyware software program. These programs prevent new spyware from installing on your computer, and search for and remove existing spyware. The next article in this series will take a closer look at anti-spyware programs, and let you know what to look for in a good protective program.