Spyware, Malware and Ad ware.
Throughout this article I will refer to this software as Spyware, but it dose not matter what you call it, it’s all bad.
What is spyware?
Spyware is software that is installed on your computer that can watch what website you visit and report on your internet activity. Slow your PC down, change your home page, and in some severe cases prevent internet connectivity all together.
How to prevent getting infected:
One of the first points I would like to make is that it is often thought that spyware is installed onto your computer without your consent. From personal experience I would say that in 9/10 cases maybe even more this is most definitely not he case. Chances are that somewhere along the line whilst you were surfing that obscure maybe slightly dodgy website or installing that ‘freeware’ program that you absolutely must have you were prompted with a very simple and non misleading question do you wish to install the following….. Clicking yes without knowing what was being installed or reading the notification correctly has been your only mistake.
Many free applications include optional extras (and in some cases non optional extras, but I will get back to them a bit later on). These option extras are not required for the original program to run, but are installed by default unless you ask for them not to be. Always select advanced installation if you are prompted, most of the time this will just allow you to change the location of there the program appears under the start menu, and other mostly non important settings, however occasionally you will be asked if you wish to install the “amazing new flashing toolbar” for internet explorer or other such applications you should always say no to installing these items. As once installed they are not easy to remove.
You should also be very careful about clicking on pop-ups when you are on the internet, you are not the 5,000,000 visitor, and you have not won a prize. So don’t click on it! Also be very careful of activex controls and other applications asking to install themselves. If allowed to install they can make many unwanted and unnecessary changes to your PC. You should only ever install these if you know what they are and that they are from a reputable website. If the www.bbc.co.uk wants to install its new media player then find go ahead and let it, but if your favourite ‘adult entertainment’ site wants to install their new video player software be very careful about clicking yes. Unless you and your family enjoy receiving adult orientated pop ups all of the time.
I’ve been following the two very simple rules above and have never been infected. So why spend £££’s on protection software, when you can prevent being infected yourself just by becoming more aware of how things work?
So the simple answer is being careful about what you click yes to.
How to remove them?
This is the hard part, once infected removal can be very difficult and occasionally near impossible meaning that nothing sort of a complete system rebuild will completely rid you of them.
There are applications out there that will attempt to run an automated removal for you; the best of these are Adaware, Spybot Search and Destroy and MalwareBytes. I would not recommend using other applications unless you know that they are legitimate. Many spyware programs pose as removers in order to get you to willingly yet unknowingly install them.
The three above applications are FREE for personal use. Do not ever pay for spyware removal software. There is no need to.
Removal will not always be successful with these products; if that is the case I would recommend that you contact a local IT support company.