Spyware - is someone watching you?
We thank
Adido-Solutions.com
for this interesting
and cautionary article. Adido-Solutions is a website design,
development and ecommerce solutions company.
Spyware is becoming one of the biggest threats
to the home PC, annoying and frustrating users and making their information,
such as passwords or even bank details, available to the wrong people. This
article tells you why spyware gets onto your PC, how it can be prevented and
how to easily get rid of it.
What is Spyware?
Spyware is termed as software which installs
itself onto a user´s machine (normally without the user´s permission) and
monitors their actions without them knowing. Spyware is not to be confused
with ´adware´ or ´malware´. Adware is software which installs itself onto
your machine with the intention of promoting adverts depending on the
information it captures about you. Malware (or MALicious softWARE) is
software which gets onto your machine and causes viruses, worms or trojans
to run without the user knowing.
If you read the computer press or even articles
on websites such as the BBC (read
more) you have no doubt read about spyware and how it can affect your PC
and your privacy.
How does Spyware work?
Spyware works by running a program or
´processes´ behind the scenes of your computer. This means that unless you
know what you are looking for or feel that your machine is starting to behave
in strange ways, you are unlikely to know that you are ever being monitored.
Some types of spyware will run to cause a nuisance to your machine by
launching advertising pop-ups (sometimes based on the website or search
engine you use), changing your browser homepage or even dialing premium rate
numbers on your PC Modem so that you are left with massive phone bills (read
more). Other things which come under the spyware banner include tracking
cookies, which collect information from thousands of sites to see who visits
what and when, along with things which bury themselves deep into your
computer memory and track other data.
How does Spyware get onto my machine?
A good question! The developers of spyware use
the weaknesses of Internet Explorer (IE) to their advantage to get their
spyware to download on your machine.
IE is intrinsically
badly designed and the spyware developers use this and the naivety of
inexperienced computer users to get their spyware programs onto PCs.
Sometimes the spyware program doesn't directly download into a user's machine,
instead a small program will download which will then download the spyware
or malware program and install itself. If the spyware program is
particularly bad, it will bury itself into the machine meaning that even if
you delete it from your machine, it will come back time and time again
unless removed professionally or using specialist removal software.
If you see a pop up box similar to this, then
chance are it is something trying to install onto your machine.
We recommend that you never
click YES to this unless you are certain you can trust the site it is coming
from.
Another major reason for the increase in
spyware is the growth of file sharing programs like
KaZaA which can come bundled with various spyware and adware programs
which will install themselves, again without the user's knowledge (read
more).
Who writes spyware and malware
programs?
The authors of spyware and malware programs
have a variety of motivations and reasons for producing spyware and adware
programs. Some of the reasons are listed below:
- Advertising revenue
- Adware programs will often pop up adverts
depending on the searches you conduct. This makes the Adware authors
money as they will get a small amount of money every time an advert
shows. However, if this operates on a global scale, the authors can soon
strike it rich. If you think its only small bedroom companies doing this
then you might be interested to know that Yahoo own a company called
Claria (also known as Gator corp), who are one of the biggest adware
software companies in the world. In an attempt to ´keep face´ Yahoo
recently introduced a spyware remover into their toolbar to show that
they are fighting spyware. When it was first introduced, it didn´t
remove Claria products very effectively, however after this was raised
by certain people in the industry, things soon changed.
- Fraud
- The aim of some spyware programs, as the
name suggests, is to spy on your computer activities. This could be your
passwords, personal details or even your bank details. When you enter
information it is transmitted to a server and this information can then
be used to purchase goods from your account or use your information for
other fraudulent purposes.
- Ego
- It's hard to believe but some of the
authors of spyware, adware or malware programs will simply do it to
prove a point to themselves or to their peers or associates. By
introducing the latest ´annoyance´ to people's machines gives their ego
boost and makes them feel important. These are very sad individuals!
What can I do to stop spyware?
There are many things which PC users can do to
stop spyware, the biggest in my opinion is to stop using Internet Explorer!
The problems with IE are well documented and many see it as being anything
from a out of date piece of software to the biggest threat to internet
security today (read
more). Ok, how are you going to do this? Well, my advise is to start
using something like
Mozilla Firefox. Promoted as ´the web reinvented´, its not only more
secure at stopping spyware and virus from getting onto your machine, its
also a lot easier to use and customise (I'm
not the only one!). In an example study, I used IE for one month and
found 24 objects classed as spyware on my machine. One month using Firefox
produced only 2 objects.
If you don´t want to change to something like
Firefox or have been using IE for sometime then you will need to remove the
spyware and associated files on your machine. In this case you will need a
spyware removal program which will remove all of the spyware programs and
files on your machine. The best place to start is with something like
Ad-aware or
Search and Destroy Both of these programs can be downloaded for free and
are widely recognised as being the best at removing the majority of spyware
found on PC´s. For a more advanced tool try
PestPatrol, a heavy duty spyware removal program which is recommended
for experienced and business users. Other companies are picking up on the
spyware threat and are trying to fight spyware. Check out the
Yahoo toolbar or
Pestscan
for some online alternatives.
Note: Some programs may also
offer themselves as being spyware removal programs but may in fact make
things worse. We only recommend the spyware removal programs mentioned above
and accept no responsibility for any data lost using them.
Where can I find out more?
The spyware epidemic is now becoming more and
more publicised as the Internet grows and grows and security issues become
important. The best place to start is
www.spywareinfo.com, a news and information service run by Mike Helan
who is recognised as one of the leaders against the spyware fight and sends
out weekly newsletters on the latest threats and news. If you don't want to
start there, try the BBC or Google and you'll find more than you bargained
for!
Did this article help you?
We welcome any feedback which you may have on
our articles so if you have any comments which you wish to make (good OR
bad) please
email us and let us know your thoughts.
Links
www.adido-solutions.com
Disclaimer:
Jayga Ltd makes no warranties or representations regarding any company or
service listed on this page nor accuracy or the fitness for purpose of the
content provided.
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