Are You One Of The 90% Affected By Spyware Or Adware?

By: Jesse Hjartarson
Submitted: 2007-01-17 13:43:55
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I am one of those people who have a go go life. And I am not too interested in fixing things unless it is affecting me. With that mentality is how I used to handle my computer; As long as the thing ran I was happy.

But the problem arose when in my go go life my computer was starting to slow me down. Which I think is one of the most frustrating things in life, when you are trying to go to some website and you just sit there waiting for it to pop up. You get up, go to the bathroom or take care of something, and come back. And there it is… a blank screen. Now many things can cause this, but in my case it was Malware.

Malware is (malicious software) and is any program created with the purpose of causing damage to a computer system or endangering the security of a computer system. These can include viruses, worms, trojans, spyware and adware.

Viruses and worms will replicate themselves and pass from one carrier to another. They can spread on their own or after the user takes some action, like opening e-mail, running a program, etc.

Trojans get their name from the famous historical Trojan horse. Trojans can get onto your system and hide there by appearing as something else. It appears to be harmless, but contains a little something extra that the user isn’t expecting, yet it can end up deleting everything on your hard drive, or it might install or change a program.

Spyware and adware (which this article is about) will work in such a way that when you download a free picture, or wallpaper, music, movie, etc., at the same time you will be installing a program that monitors your key strokes and sends that information back to a third party via the Internet.

Spyware and adware are horrible things and are probably the worst offenders of Malware. In today’s world where the Internet is so big, nasty people are finding more and more clever ways to steal your identity and in general MONEY.

Now adware, like spyware, will slow your computer down and will keep redirecting you to other sites and you will receive loads of pop-ups.

The most common ways that spyware gets into your computer is as follows:

1. By free software like screensavers or P2P file sharing programs which you download, such as Kazaa. It installs adware onto your computer even though it claims to contain “no spyware.” Another one is Screensaver.com.

2. Opening e-mail attachments that are spam.

3. Opening pop ups

4. When the website that you are visiting automatically downloads the spyware.

Sites to be careful on, especially if you want to ignore this article, are sites such as:

1. Gaming sites

2. Music downloads

3. Adult sites

4. Celebrity sites

5. Screensaver and wallpaper sites.

Hopefully I have gotten this article out in time to those people who are like me and are just content to do nothing about protecting themselves until is too late. If it is too late and you think that you are already affected, then there are solutions that I will explain.

First, you delete everything on your hard drive. You will loose any data that wasn’t backed up. It is very time consuming but will work quite well.

Second, you restore your operating system and all of your software. After that, restore any files that you had backed up. You may want a professional with specific skills to do that.

Third, if you aren’t too badly affected, try some free trial spyware removal programs and they will tell you what you have on your computer relating to spyware.

There are some free adware sites but you have to be VERY careful of those because a lot of them are bogus and will end up giving you spyware. They will delete the competitors but will add theirs to your computer instead.

Here are two pretty good free ones that you can look into.

1. Adware 6.0 - this one will get you daily updates, easy to use interface, and fast scanning to delete the most common spyware and adware on your computer.

2. Spybot Search and Destroy. - This has an immunizer built in it, and it will automatically work with your Internet browser, not allowing you to go to known bad sites that give you viruses. It also allows you free daily updates so you can be protected against the most common spyware/adware.

Just remember that people will go through great lengths to infect your computer and hide it from the average user so they won’t be able to find it and remove it.

But don’t feel defenseless. I am here to tell you how to get software that will totally clear up all your problems. One suggestion is to do a little research on your own. Find out more about this enemy of yours so you can feel totally comfortable with the product that you get to remove the spyware and adware from your computer.

When getting spyware removal software, you will want the most up-to-date version on the market. Big name companies will usually always be safe sites to visit. I also recommend that you get the spyware removal that offers you a free scan of your computer which will produce a report of the spyware or adware currently infecting your computer.

The downfall of these compared to their paid counterparts is that they don’t come with as many features. You have to constantly remember to download up dates. And as mentioned before free programs tend to be more likely to be a hoax.

About the Author: Jesse Hjartarson is owner of www.One-Stop-Resources.com, a site dedicated to providing the most comprehensive information on just about anything. For a free report on how to make sure you don’t become Malware’s next unsuspecting victim, visit the site for his top 5 solutions:

http://www.One-Stop-Resources.com/recommends/malware

For a Free report on how to make sure you don't become Malware's next unsuspecting victim, visit http://www.One-Stop-Resources.com/recommends/malware

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