Are You Infected with Spyware, AdWare, and Viruses?

The term spyware is used to refer to a large number of malicious software that is designed to infiltrate your computer and effect its operation without your consent or knowledge. The literal interpretation of the term suggests that the software is monitoring what the user is doing. It has evolved into a broader definition that means the software is subverting the computers operation for the benefit of others.

In more general terms, spyware is a piece of software that monitors a user's interaction with the computer and sends that information to a third party over the Internet. Spyware can collect all sorts of information such as the types of web sites that you are visiting to send to an advertising agency, or it could even monitor your keystrokes to collect information such as passwords or credit card information. Still other forms of spyware simply launch pop-up advertising.

Spyware is different from a virus in that it is usually not self replicating. However, like most recent viruses, it does take advantage of the infected machines for commercial gain, typically to deliver unsolicited pop-up advertisements, collect browsing habits for marketing purposes, or even redirect your web browser to advertising sites.

Spyware has now become one of the greatest security risks to Windows based computers (especially those users using Internet Explorer). There have been similar instances of malware on Linux and Mac OS X that perform similar functions, but so far this has not been nearly as widespread. This is partly due to the fact that the use of these systems is relatively smaller than Windows, and they generally offer better security.

According to research by AOL and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 80% of surveyed computers were infected by some form of spyware with an average of 93 spyware components per computer. Furthermore, 89% of the users surveyed said that they had no knowledge of the spyware's presence, and 95% said that they had not given permission for the installation of the software.

Adware, on the other hand, generally refers to any software that displays advertisements, whether or not with the users consent. Some software will use advertisements as an alternative to charging for the product. These do qualify as adware due to the display of advertisements, but they do not qualify as spyware. These types of programs do not operate without the consent of or try to mislead the user in any way. They are simply providing a service to the user without charging for that service; therefore, finding alternate ways to make money from the product.

Actually the most common way for spyware to get on your computer involves you installing it. Although, most users would not intentionally install software on their computers if they know that it will interfere with its operation or affect their privacy. So, most spyware attaches itself to another program that you would want to install, or by tricking you into installing it without realizing it. Most recently, it has become very common for spyware to tell you that you are installing security software to remove spyware and adware, when in fact, you are just installing spyware itself. Spyware is often bundled with shareware programs. You simply download and install a file sharing utility or other software, and the installation program will install many additional spyware programs. The software that you intended to install will do no harm to your computer, but the other spyware programs do. In some cases the shareware authors have been paid to include the spyware, and sometimes the spyware author will simply repackage the free software with an installer that includes their spyware.

Another popular way to install spyware is through the Internet Explorer web browser. In order to perform such an installation, you would have to click on a link. For example, the link could bring up a dialog box asking if you would like to "optimize your Internet access". These dialogs generally have links that look like buttons labeled Yes and No. The trick is that no matter which button you press, a download starts which installs the spyware onto your system. Other spyware can take advantage of security vulnerabilities in your web browser. These types of spyware can infect your system just from you visiting a malicious web page. You would not have to click on a link or anything else. These types of infections usually take advantage of security holes that exist in Internet Explorer because of its tight integration with the Windows operating system.

It is also possible that a virus can be used to deliver spyware to your system. These can be quite profitable for the spyware and virus authors, as just displaying the ads can generate money for them. Once the spyware is installed it can even install other spyware itself. It's like an open invitation to other spyware vendors to use your system as well. Commonly, today most spyware will disable known anti-virus software as well as software based firewalls. This is just further invitation for other viruses and spyware to install itself. Once you are infected with one piece of spyware, it probably will not be the last.

Users will frequently notice that their system performance is highly degraded. The spyware is taking most of the CPU cycles to perform its work and not letting you get yours done. Network traffic can come to a crawl. Stability issues can arise, and that can lead to application failure or system crashes quite often. It can even cause difficulty in connecting to the Internet. These are are good indications that you are infected with spyware. However, if the user is unaware of the infection, they may think that they are experiencing hardware issues or even Windows OS problems.

Depending on how badly the system is infected, a complete reinstall of the system may be required to solve the problem. This can be a costly and time consuming task for some users. As spyware has gotten worse and worse, a number of solutions to the problem have emerged. There are currently a large number of programs out there that will remove or even block spyware from being installed on your system. Some of these programs are free, and others are not. In the Free category Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE and Patrick Kolla's Spybot - Search and Destroy are quite popular and very good. In the pay category, Webroot's SpySweeper and Computer Associates Pest Patrol are highly recommended.

There are also many user practices that can reduce the chance of being infected. Perhaps the best method is installing a web browser other than Internet Explorer. Good choices would be Opera or Mozilla Firefox. These will help, but they will not solve the problem completely. This is due to the fact that the user is responsible for what he or she clicks on. Another good suggestion is to install a hardware firewall. These offer a number of benefits and are completely unobtrusive.

So, as you can see there are things that can help with the situation. None of these, however, are foolproof. In the end it is up to you. Only you can learn what to look out for, spot suspicious software, and change your computing habits to be safer on the Internet.