The Dire Consequences of Spyware And Adware Infections

Adware and spyware can cause immeasurable damage to your computer and personal life. They disseminate confidential and sensitive data, havoc your computer, infect your applications, damage your hardware and what not. The worst part is that these intruders are so frequent that we accept them as a normal occurrences.

Spyware is a program that gets into your computer without your consent. Once inside, it monitors your keystrokes, scan hard disk files to steal sensitive information like credit card numbers, passwords, IP addresses etc from your computer. Will you believe me if I say spyware monitors your keystrokes as you enter your credit card number in an online form and extracts the number? Yes, it is TRUE. Spywares even keep track of your browsing habits by logging the sites you visit, the files you download and time you stay online.

A spyware does not stop here. The collected information is sold or sent to advertisers or interested third parties. I assume that you can imagine the disasters that can result when sensitive information falls in wrong hands. Advertisers with the knowledge about your browsing habits can use it for their advertising campaign.

The term ‘spyware’ came into use first in 1995 in the context of hardware for espionage purposes. However the term got is current meaning only in the year 2000. The damage caused by spyware and adware is indeed alarming, which is the reason behind the flourish of anti spyware industry.

The popularity of Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer has invoked spyware creators to write programs that specifically attack Microsoft Widows Operating System. It is not surprising that, spyware has been identified as one of the top security threats for computers with Ms Windows Operating System and IE users are more vulnerable for spyware attacks.

Spy software creates dangerous security holes- The latest “rage” among spyware vendors is the ability to let the spy remotely connect to the target’s computers. Right now we have identified several spyware programs opening a default port on the system and using a hard-coded or default, easy to guess or easy to brute force password. We have analyzed and carried out simulated attacks in this scenario. Hackers can use a simple port scanning tool to scan entire networks and easily penetrate affected machines.

Spyware is common- We know what you might be thinking; spy software seems rather “James Bondish” and beyond the reach of average users. This is not so. It is now mass-marketed, cheap and very easy to acquire. You can find spyware for sale through Internet auctions, via e-mails (often spam), and all over the Web. You can even get spyware for free if you know where to look.

Anti spyware is the only way to close security loop holes through which spyware enter into your computer. However web is not static and comes out with surprises time to time. Advertisers, developers, even Government constantly come up with new methods to improve the capability of their spywares. The battle is endless where for each new version of the spyware, the anti spyware industry creates a new anti spyware or an update for already existing one. Hence one invariably has to update his/her anti spyware regularly.

Once an anti spyware is installed in your computer, it can disable or remove existing spyware programs and block the new ones. Most of the times, a spyware software does not have an uninstall option. But some spywares provide the option of uninstalling, but again it is a deception. Clicking on the uninstall button of the spyware installs another spyware instead of removing the former. Hence, its best to rely upon an anti spyware to remove the spyware from your computer.

Here are some precautionary measures that proved to be worthy in reducing security threats of your computer.

Always use an anti-spyware program to prevent the installation of spyware in your system

Use pop up blocker for your browser

Disable automatic installation of programs in your browser

Delete anonymous mails without opening

Don’t open mails with vague subjects

Enable firewall protection

It is quite difficult to remove the spyware without damage to your applications if they get into your system. You need the best spyware cleaner. Hence stop the spyware at the entrance itself.

Have you ever experienced something like this? A particular outfit displayed at a boutique shop catches your eyes. You watch it for some time and move on. On reaching home, you find a flyer that is exactly on the same outfit that caught your eyes. This can be a coincidence in this situation but it cannot be so when you experience such a thing in web. You are probably being spied upon and your every movement is being watched. Yes, it may be a spyware!

Similar to adware spywares are also freeware. But they have spy programs embedded in them to track you footprints in web and report them to a spyware agent which in turn reports to an advertisers or third developers. By having a spyware in your computer, you grant unlimited rights to a third party to use your computer and the information in it as they wish. So, its high time you safeguard you data and your computer with a good anti spyware. There are loads of anti spywares already out in market. They are either trial versions which can be registered later or totally available for free of cost.

Though there are some exceptions, most of the time anti-spyware utilities identify the adware and spywares. If a culprit is identified, the anti-spyware either removes or quarantines or ignores it. Some of the anti spyware utilities run automatically while others provide gui where you can customize the activities if the anti spyware.

I provide here the labels and features of some popular anti spyware and adware programs which may help you to choose one.

Ad Aware : Ad-Aware provides protection from known Spyware including data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components.

Active Shield: It protects your computer from trojans, spyware, adware, trackware, dialers, keyloggers, and even some special kinds of viruses

Spy-Ad Exterminator Free: It looks through your computer`s memory, hard drives, and registry for spyware, adware, worms, hijacks, keyloggers, IE Toolbars, BHOs, etc

Free Spyware Scanner: Free Spyware Scanner scours your system, including the registry and temporary Internet files, and looks for traces of recognized adware modules. When it's finished searching, it displays a list of what it found. You could use some good spyware removal tool such as Doctor Alex Antispyware, Spyware Begone, 1-2-3 Spyware Free in conjunction with this one.

Spyware Doctor: It is an advanced spyware and adware removal tool. Spyware doctor 6 provides features like improved detection capabilities, swift clean-up of heavily infected computers, hacker defense and many more.

Spy Cleaner, Anti-Hijacker, Spyware & Adware Removal, Max Secure Spyware Detector, and Deluxe Spy-Kill utilities are some of the other popular tools that fall under the same category.

Now its up to you to pick and choose an anti spyware that meet your needs best. Don’t forget to go through the reviews and consult your friends before you finally decided.

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