Which Spyware Is Infecting Your PC?

pyware 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:


1) Try Ad-Aware 6.0 Professional from LavaSoft (there is also a free version with less functionality)

2) Spybot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software


3) Xoftspy form Pareto Logic

5) Spyware Guard from Javacool Software is a free program

4) Pest Patrol (now part of Computer Associates by acquisition)

5) 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.

Get Rid of Spyware

Spywares are not only a bother but also harm your computer software and sometimes can even attack your hardware too. These annoying bugs have become a threat to browsers on a global scale. They have become such a commonplace that sometimes we don't just pay any attention to them.

Spyware snoops on everythign you do online from your internet surfing, usage and even can go so far as collecting your personal financial information. If the spyware has entered your computer it will be like a person looking over your shoulder while you enter password into your online payment accounts or your online bank accounts.

While a physically present person may not be able to remember the keystrokes as you input the password because it is shown in asterisks ******* but the spyware uses the keylogger technology to monitor the exact words you are typing into the computer.

This ability of the spyware is enough to demonstrate what it can do to you and your personal finances and safety. With this information it can wipe out your bank accounts, use your credit cards to run up whopping amount of debt lending you into financial problems. Moreover, when you cant pay the bills of some cyber thief, your credit rating is sure to suffer and make you unable to get credit or run your business.

By spying on the sites you normally visit, the spyware will collect your surfing information which it will sell to unscruplous advertisers who will send un-invited pages to your browsers. Naturally these pages will be of those products and services in which you are interested. This is a forced entry into your cyber world.

Because spyware is such a pain you need to scan your computer for any such intrusions and destroy them as soon as possible. For this use a good anti-spyware.

Here are some suggested anti-spyware solutions:

Ad Aware and Active Shield are popular softwares which are used extensively.

Ad Aware offers advanced protection against Data-mining, Parasites, aggressive advertising, Scumware and some traditional viruses and tracking systems like Trojans, Dialers, Malware and Browser hijackers. Active Shield on the other hand targets trojans and spyware.