Spyware, Malware Adware etc. What do words like these conjure up for you? I know what they do for me: a menace. I think we've all had bad experiences with it? And we definately want to get rid of it! Spyware away if you will, As you can tell, i'm anti-spyware.
At best its an annoyance. At worst its dangerous. I should know. i got so tired of it, i decided to get clued up on it. So now i know a trick or two about the scourge called spyware.
The term 'Spyware', refers to unauthorized spyware software (or in some cases hardware) that is installed on your computer. Software that is intended to spy upon all your online activities. Which run from keystrokes to which sites you browse. Sound innocent enough? Perhaps, until you think about what keystrokes you type in, like passwords. And who wants other people knowing every website you visit? Even if they are from legitimate sources, like pop-ups from sites you visit. They are irritating and can slow down your computer or even crash it! And some can install themselves and then work on installing other programs without you even being aware. Sounds like a nightmare to me.
Two well known examples of spyware are so-called Trojan-horses and key-loggers. These capture all keystrokes and send them back to the originator of the software. Who if he's lucky, will get all your passwords, credit card numbers and the like. You can imagine what someone could do with information like this! So what is needed is to delete spyware.
So, are you now wondering how spyware gets onto your computer? Well, it is really not that hard. It needs to be 'installed' on your computer. Of course, you don't realise whats happening. Say you see a pretty wallpaper picture that you like, you go and download it, and guess what? While your downloading it, you are also downloading hidden spyware! Nasty isn't it? And when that happens, detecting the spyware, isn't easy.
One thing that shocked me while investigating this, and I had no idea about, was remember how when your deleting junk email you sometimes get an ActiveX box that pops up on you? I always used to just click on 'OK' to get rid of it. Much to my shock, clicking on 'OK' can be an invitationn for secretive spyware to install itself on your computer! Yikes! So if one of those pesky ActiveX boxes appear what you do instead is click on the x in the top right hand corner. That will block spyware being installed.
Also an ActiveX box can pop up when you visit a website and asks if you want to install such and such program on your computer. This time you get a yes or no option. DON'T click on 'No'. The same thing applies in this case as with the email one; you click on the x on the top right corner and stop spyware being installed.
Viruses and Worms, which you may have heard of, are a form of spyware. So is the P2P (peer to peer) software sharing product out there. 'Kazaa' for instance. Another, which is not so obvious perhaps, is no cost CDs that come with magazines. These usually come with spyware ready to invade your computer! Yet another type are toolbars that you install on your IE (internet explorer). They may well also have spyware attached to them.
From all this you can see it is quite likely you have Spyware lurking on your computer right now! Which may make you feel uneasy. So now you are probably thinking, how do I get rid of this garbage?
Well there is good news and bad news. It is not that hard to eradicate much of it. However, it is not possible to delete 100%. Unless you reformat your hard drive- a rather extreme measure I think you would agree!
So, now you are ready to wipe these nasty files. Firstly, you need to back up all your viital data and files. Its alwayss iimportant to back-up whenever you do anything system-wide on your computer. Fact is, you should do daily back-ups. You never know when your computer will crash. But for the purposes of this task, backing up is a must!
Next, you will need to download the software needed to take care of the spyware. The 3 best are: from Microsoft, Lavasoft, and Spybot. All 3 are needed, since using only one, will never be as effective as 3. Here are the sites to download the free spyware removers. Yes, they are no cost software.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
http://www.lavasoft.de
http://www.spybot.info
Some spyware is VERY hard to detect and takes a little more specialised grunt.
This tool will get rid of 'CWS' (coolwebsearch) which are many kinds of spyware known as a browser hijacker. This is any kind of software that resets your browsers settings to point to other sites. They can then 'hijack' any information you supply.
Here's a powerful free one called CWS Shredder. Here's the link:
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html
Hopefully this has given you some valuable advice to keep the dreaded Spyware out.
CopyRight 2005 Gary Martin
www.spyware-away.com
Gary Martin. Avid computer user and internet entreprenuer. |
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