| Adware and Spyware |
What is 'adware'?
Adware is basically software or scripts that are hidden
on your computer, that make advertising show up all over
the place. It may be an extra menu in your web browser,
icons appearing on your desktop, bookmarks or favourites
appearing out of no where, and pop up ads that seem to
come from no where!
What is 'spyware'?
Spyware is similar in nature to adware, however I feel
its purpose is slightly more sinister. Spyware as the
name implies, spies on you. It may record information
about your web surfing habits, time you spend online,
your e-mail address, and what web sites you frequent.
It then takes this information and sends it to various
companies for the purpose of adding you to mailing lists
and spam.
What should I do?
When you surf or download programs you are most
vulnerable to these types of programs. Often adware
and spyware applications are hidden inside 'free'
software. You install the application and then behind
the scenes it installs the spyware or adware. Another
common method for people installing applications on
your computer is tricking you in to doing it. Sometimes
when you surf a website or play a game online they
will need you to install an application to proceed.
Often a box will appear that asks you for permission to
install this application and you clicking 'yes' allows
you to continue. However at the same time you just got
some adware or spyware installed. The best advice I can
give is just read very carefully all messages that pop
up on your screen, don't just hit enter or click ok as
so many people do.
What do I do if I already have spyware or adware installed?
There are many free applications available on the Internet,
however I think that most people would agree that one of
the best is 'Ad-aware' by Lavasoft. It is freely available
and they update their database files very regularly. In
essence, it is a virus scanner, which only looks for adware
and spyware. Once it finds some it will prompt you and ask
you what course of action you would like to do.
The homepage for 'Ad-aware' is:
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
Ken Dennis
Ken@BoredCanadian.com
http://www.BoredCanadian.com/
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