Task 4 : Protect against Spywares and Adwares
If you are a regular Internet user, chances are your PC will inevitably be infested with some form of spyware and adware. These are programs that sneak their way onto your computer through exploiting software flaws, programming tricks, or by piggybacking on "free" software.
What exactly is a spyware or an adware? According to one definition:
Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent.
Apart from secretly monitoring the user's behavior, spyware can also collect various types of personal information, interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software, redirecting Web browser activity or diverting advertising revenue to a third party.
Whereas adware is software with advertising functions integrated into or bundled with a program. Usually these programs are provided to user free of charge or at a reduced price. In return, the software vendor will insert advertisements within the program, as a means to bring in income. Sometimes adware comes in a form of spyware, where you are not aware that it was installed, and it would serve popup advertisements when you browse the Internet.
How do you get infected with Spyware?
Spyware can be downloaded from web sites, email messages, instant messages, and from direct file-sharing connections. In some cases, a user may even unknowingly receive spyware by accepting an End User License Agreement from a software program. Unlike computer viruses, spywares do not replicate itself but rely very much on users' ignorance to download to his computer.
How to quickly recognize that your computer is infected with spyware?
If you are like me, I don't spend enough time doing a regular scan on my computer for spywares. Maybe once a month or more. And my computer could be infected with spyware without me being aware of it. Here are some tell-tale signs on the possible presence of spywares on your computer:
- Your computer has begun running usually slow.
- Your computer occasionally or consistently hangs when you open or close a program
- You begun getting a lot of popup ads on your screen while browsing the Internet or even after being on the Internet
- Turning on or off your computer takes longer than usual.
- Programs you have open sometimes close or shut down unexpectedly
- Programs that used to open without incident start to crash when you open them
- Unusual error messages starts appearing when you first turn on your computer
- When you open your browser, the initial homepage has been changed to a location you didn't select
- An unexpected toolbar appears on your browser that you don't know how it got there.
- New program name appearing in your All Programs menu that you know nothing about or new shortcuts on your desktop.
How to protect yourself from spywares?
Commercial software like the Norton Internet Security proactively protect your computer from spyware and other security risks like viruses. They monitors your system and pop up warning messages to alert you in the event of detection. There are also other free edition software that you can use to scan your computer periodically to detect any infection. These software do not actively monitor your computer activity for spywares or adwares. You must scan your computer before you know if they are present on your computer. So they are not really protecting you but informing you as well as provide a mean to remove them. There are many such programs available commercially or for free. I use two of the free software, SpyBot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware Free by Lavasoft.
It is recommended that you have at least 2 of these spyware removal software installed. Reason is typically, a spyware removal utility may be great at detecting one category of spyware, but may NOT be good at detecting another type. So having more than one of such removal software helps to get the job more thoroughly.
Note: Like anti-virus programs, you need to regularly update the data file for these spyware detection/removal program as well, in order to detect and remove the latest spywares or adwares.
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