Spyware is simply programs that are installed on your computer without your knowledge or consent. These rogue applications can do anything from display unwanted ads on your computer to downloading additional “junk” to actually recording everything done on your computer for later collection and analysis.
You definitely want to do something about spyware.
There are two things you can do. First, simply stop visiting sites that you have a bad feeling about (this site isn’t one of them, I hope!). Or if you simply “must” visit sites that you consider risky, get a second computer and visit those sites using that computer using a system that I’ll be developing in October (check back towards the end of October and look for information on something that has a working title of “Project Deep Freeze”). You should also consider restricting active content on your computer.
I also recommend that you use the FireFox web browser on your computer. I can’t say that it’s any more secure that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but the installed base of Internet Explorer is larger than that of FireFox, making Internet Explorer a much larger target for malicious attacks. If you don’t already use it, I strongly recommend giving it a try.
The other thing you should do is get some anti-spyware software to protect your computer. There are a lot of free ones out there, but I really can’t recommend a free solution in this case simply because there’s one that costs only a few dollars a year that is head and shoulders above the others. It’s called CounterSpy and is distributed by — surprise! — Sunbelt Software. It not only looks for spyware on your computer based on pattern matching and recognition, it also monitors your computer for suspicious activity and will take action (based on your preferences) whenever something happens that just doesn’t seem right.
If you think that you already have a spyware infection on your computer, head over to the BleepingComputer.com forum and follow the instructions on that page. The good volunteers there will try to help you get rid of your infection — and they won’t charge you a cent (although I recommend that you look for a tip jar — and please remember to say “please” and “thank you”. There’s nothing worse than impolitely demanding something from somebody who is donating their time and expertise to help a complete stranger…).
Incidentally, that’s not the only place where you can get that kind of spyware cleanup help; it’s just the one I’m most familiar with (nor is it necessarily an endorsement or recommendation; you take action on this information, as always, at your own risk).
We’ll talk briefly about spam in my next post.
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