Beware of SpyWare!
Click Here to Download a PDF Version of This Article
So you've made your investment in a personal computer and you're ready to take on the World Wide Web. The last thing you want to worry about is some kid in a dorm room sending you a virus, or worse, hacking into your system and stealing information about you. Unfortunately, that threat is more real than many of us would like to believe.
This threat is known as SpyWare!
Is your computer all of a sudden running slowly lately, especially when you are surfing the
Internet? Crashing randomly for no reason? Gathering tons of spam e-mail? Has your default
homepage changed to some strange search page? Is your computer screen constantly cluttered with all
sorts of weird pop-up advertising? If so you may be the victim of SpyWare! (Also know as AdWare)
What is SpyWare? Basically it started out as "Internet Marketing". Somewhere down the line it morphed its way into something that could invade your privacy and make your Internet surfing experience very frustrating. You may not even know you have SpyWare installed on your computer until it's out of control and you start to see visible signs of your computer's performance being adversely affected.
SpyWare is capable of doing any of the following:
- Track all web sites that you've visited.
- Capture information you type into search engines. This information can and become part of someone's marketing plan.
- Gather data you send over the Internet and make it available for others to read.
- Fill up your hard drive with illegal files and make it a pubic file storage place for others to visit without you even knowing.
- Hijack your web browser and forcefully redirect your Internet traffic to some other website then you originally intended on visiting.
- Steal passwords that you type into secure websites.
- Take remote control of your computer and thusly have access to all of your private information.
You may say "But I have the latest anti-virus software and my brother In-Law came over last week and I think he installed one of those firewalls." The problem with SpyWare is that it is sneaky and has ways of getting around anti-virus and firewalls by possibly tricking you. There may also be a misconception of what anti-virus software and a firewall can do. Simply speaking, anti-virus programs protect your computer from viruses. Firewalls protect you from hackers (a person or another computer) hacking into your computer in some way. Also take into consideration anti-virus software and firewalls only work well if they are installed and configured properly.
Need Adobe Acrobat? Click Here. 
About Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | ©2006 Need Computer Help? Calgary, Alberta, Canada
