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What is spyware and how do I protect my PC from it?

 

Category: Web Surfing

Spyware is similar to worms and viruses which infect your computer, not to cause harm, but rather to spy on your behavior on the net, bring unwanted ads, dubious toolbars and sites to your PC without your approval. There probabably isn't a PC which has never been at one time infected with spyware.

A recent statistic showed that a computer without any firewall can not surf the net more than 20 minutes without getting infected with some kind of virus or spyware.

Even Microsoft has its own spyware integrated into Windows. It is called “Alexa” and it is an integrated feature of Internet Explorer in Windows XP pre Service Pack 2. It resides in the “Related Links” option in the tools menu. When you click it Alexa will contact a server via MSN and search for related links, opening a new IE window and displaying them with lots of ads and such. It seems that because of a bug in IE you can even transmit links (including secure ones) for which you didn’t even request related links.   

By now you are probably wondering about how you can get it out. Well one of the best anti-spyware programs is Ad-aware SE by Lavasoft.

Ad-Aware Performing System Scan

What is so good about Ad-Aware that makes me recommend it? First of all it was amongst the first such programs available and…it is free. Second it has an updatable database, so that you will always be protected against the latest “hits” in spyware.

Maybe the most important feature of Ad-Aware is its ease of use. I mean all you have to do is start the program and press “Scan now”. No fuss and no complication. After the scan is done (it won’t take very long, depending on your scanning options) you will be presented with options on what you want to do: Quarantine and/or Remove the records.

 
Ad-Aware Scanning Results

So don’t wait, scan now, and make sure you won’t have to put up with those unwanted page redirects and pop-ups any longer!

Related links:

Ad-aware SE



Posted by: Nitro on February 26, 2006 at 21:36.
 

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