Spyware: Destroying Your Computer System and Your Privacy At Once

A recent study conducted by AOL in conjunction with the National Security Alliance determined that, in a sample of 354 homes, over 61% of users had spyware loaded on their computers. Another study indicates that 83% of computers are infected with some form of spyware and 89% of affected consumers are unaware that they have spyware installed on their computers. Spyware can be devastating to both your privacy your computer system’s performance. The good new is, security software technology exists that can keep this threat from damaging your computer, sapping your productivity and exposing you to the threat of identity theft.

It’s not always immediately obvious that spyware has been downloaded into your PC. If you haven’t taken preventative steps in the past, it’s very likely that your system has been infected. Signs that your system may be infected with spyware include:

1) You open the web browser on your computer and it opens to a different home page that the one you set.

2) Your system may have extra icons, or your browser may have extra toolbars that you did not install

3) The “Favorites” list on your Web browser contains web pages that you did not put there.

4) When web browsing you notice an unusual amount of pop-up ads, often unrelated to sites you are viewing

5) Your system takes a very long time to boot, and runs more slowly than it used to.

This is how your system gets infected: while you are browsing sites on the Web, small computer programs are at work behind the scenes, gathering information about what you do, who you are, and who your friends are. These little programs gather this information and transmit it to a secret host somewhere on the network. On the other end of that connection, someone takes that information and uses it to send you spam email, or to send pop-up advertisements to your screen. Worse, they may be using the transmitted information to steal your identity!

It’s called spyware, and it’s the greatest threat to ever hit the Internet. In its most seemingly innocuous form, it’s called adware, and is delivered to your computer–usually without your knowledge–as part of some other program or utility. But while suffering through a few ads may seem like a small price to pay for that cool new game you downloaded, think again. The licensing terms of the adware you clicked on very likely allows the adware company to sell information to third parties. It also allows them to insert that piece of software onto your PC, which ultimately eats bandwidth as it constantly transmits information back to the host. Before you know it, you’re killing pop-ups every ten seconds, you are drowning in spam, and your system crashes on a daily basis.

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.

Removing spyware from your computer can be difficult, since it is installed on your system through many different conduits and can affect your system in many different ways. It’s imperative that you install anti-spyware software on your system, but that alone won’t provide you with a complete solution. Here are a few suggestions of things that you can do to keep spyware from compromising your computer:

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) Install a URL filtering solution. Certain 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.

3) Be especially wary of email attachments from unknown senders. Spammers email attachments in an attempt to trick you into clicking on them. When you do - you get a special delivery of spyware.

4) Install and use firewall software to disable the delivery of the types of content to your system that are potentially spyware such as .exe, .vbs, Java or ActiveX applications.

5) Don’t use IM or Peer to Peer sharing programs. If you do, be carefull while doing so. Always know ahead of time what you’re downloading and who it’s from. These types of programs are notorious as conduits for spyware.