The Threat of Spyware: Devouring Your System and Your Privacy
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 easy to tell if spyware has been downloaded and installed on your PC. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t taken steps in the past to prevent the installation of spyware on your computer, it is very likely that your system is infected. Some signs that your system is or 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 suddenly has extra icons on the desktop, or your browser has extra toolbars 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 lot longer to boot, or operates slower than usual.
It happens like this: while you’re surfing the Web, tiny computer programs are hard at work behind the scenes–gathering information about what you do, who you are, and who your friends are. These programs compile this and other information, and transmit it to a covert host. On the other end, someone takes that information and uses it for the purpose of sending you spam email or delivering pop-up advertisements, or worse, uses it for the purpose of identity theft.
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 adware and spyware programs are stand-alone programs, they can be designed to do just about anything on your computer. Not only can they track your browsing habits, they can also be designed to examine the contents of your disk drive, copy files from them and transmit them elsewhere on the network, change system files, change registry settings, steal passwords or even credit card number if they 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) 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) Implement a URL filtering solution. Some spyware programs launch automatically when certain web pages are visited. Porn sites are notorious for containing spyware. A good URL filter will prevent users 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) If you use firewall software, 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 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.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
No tags for this post.Related posts
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
