How Many Spyware
Items
are Infecting Your
Computer?
By James Williams
I just had, by
mistake, a plug-in
called Intelligent
Explorer attach to
my browser. What a
nightmare! I
have another article
on this topic, but
this brings home a
point. Spyware
or adware items are
continually
infecting computers.
Most computers have
no protection from
them. Most
frightening is the
frequency of them.
From the
InfosecWriters web
site, "According to
a 2004 survey by
America Online and
the National Cyber
Security Alliance,
91% of users
questioned were
familiar with the
term spyware. Only
53% believed their
computers were
infected, but a scan
found that 80% of
their PCs had some
type of spyware
installed on them."
It goes on to say,
"...The average
number of spyware
components per
computer was 93 with
one computer having
well over a
thousand."
What
is Spyware?
Butte College
(www.bctv.butte.edu/support/spyware.html)
offers this
definition:
“The term ‘spyware’
is broadly defined
as any program that
gets into your
computer without
permission and hides
in the background
while it makes
unwanted changes to
your user
experience.
Spyware is generally
not designed to
damage your
computer. The damage
it does is more a
by-product of its
main mission, which
is to serve you
targeted
advertisements or
make your browser
display certain
sites or search
results.
At present, most
spyware targets only
the Windows
operating system
(Internet
Explorer).”
To be fair, spyware
can be harmless, for
example tracking
cookies don’t do
much. While such
things infringe on
your privacy, they
don't really harm
anything. Others,
however, are
extremely
dangerous.
So what do you do
about it?
No spyware program
seems to do
everything, but
there are a lot of
goods solutions out
there that can help.
Here is a list of
some of the top
Spyware tools to
look at:
-
Try Ad-Aware 6.0
Professional
from LavaSoft
(there is also a
free version
with less
functionality)
-
Spybot Search &
Destroy from
PepiMK Software
-
Xoftspy form
Pareto Logic
-
Spyware Guard
from Javacool
Software is a
free program
-
Pest Patrol (now
part of Computer
Associates by
acquisition)
-
McAfee
Anti-Spyware
One thing is for
certain: you do need
to take spyware
seriously. For
some reason, too
many people out
there think
anti-virus solutions
are the end-all
solution. They are
not.
And, when all else
fails?
Finally, as drastic
as it seems,
if your computer has
been infected with a
large number of
spyware programs,
the only solution
you may have is
backing up your
data, and performing
a complete reinstall
of the operating
system.
