Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore Spyware and Adware
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 8:44 am by Kris Paulita
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’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) When you open the web browser on your computer, it opens to a different home page than it should.
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) Your “Favoriates” list in your Web browser has pages listed on it that you didn’t put there.
4) While you are browsing the web you notice an unusual number of pop-up ads, usually completely unrelated to the sites that you are viewing.
5) Your system takes a very long time to boot, and runs more slowly than it used to.
Here’s an example of how your system gets infected: while you’re browsing your favoriate sites on the web small executables are at work behind the scenes, gathering information such as what you are doing, who you are and who your friends are. Once they gather this information they transmit it to a server somewhere on the internet. Once there, someone takes that information and uses it to spam you, or to send pop-ups to your screen. Worse, they may use that information to compromise your identity or to steal from you.
This is spyware, at it could be the greatest threat to ever hit the Internet. In the less obtrusive form it is called adware, and it’s sent to your computer system, usually without you even knowing, as a part of some other program or utility. You may initially think that suffering through a few ads is a small price to pay for that neat new game or tool that you downloaded. Think again! You probably agreed to a license to download that neat new game, and it very likely allows the company that sent it to you to sell any information that they gather to third parties. And while they were installing that neat new game, they also installed other software onto your PC, which will compromise your system and devour network bandwidth as it transmits data back to the originators of the adware. Next thing you know, you are killing pop-up windows every ten seconds, your email inbox is filling up with spam and your system crashes way more than it ever did before!
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) Many, but not all spyware programs are identified and classified by anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Fixes are published. Make sure you keep your anti-spyware software up to date.
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) Spammers email attachments in an attempt to trick you into clicking on them. When you do - you get a special delivery of spyware. You should be suspicious of email attachments from unknown senders.
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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