subject: How to Help Prevent Spyware From Infecting Your Computer? [print this page] How to Help Prevent Spyware From Infecting Your Computer?
Spyware is a general term for malware that is installed on a computer by infected pages on the Internet, or comes from software and other packages that was installed on the computer by the user. Incorrectly labeled as viruses, spyware has proliferated over the last 8-10 years (since about 2000) and has caused many computer users to have major headaches, causing computer reformats and file loss. This type of software is what this document is going to concentrate on.
Spyware can come in the form of Ad-ware, Hijackers, tracking cookies (although not all tracking cookies are bad), rogue security software, ransom-ware (an advanced rogue security software), and keyloggers. New types of spyware include rootkits which can be very difficult, if not impossible to remove from a computer system. I will speak more on that later. The primary point of spyware, however, is that it is a piece of software installed on a computer system without the user's consent or knowledge, and is typically very difficult (or seemingly difficult) to remove.
Many spyware programs are installed by way of Trojans where a piece of software is installed on the computer from the Internet. The spyware is installed unknowingly by the user at the same time as the "software" giving the malware free reign of the computer. Software that installs this way includes free screensavers, free games, programs from torrents, programs from file sharing (such as Limewire), and other rogue software.
Other spyware programs are installed by way of infected web pages. If you see a page with a popup that comes up and says something like "Warning: Your computer is infected with 99999 viruses. Click here to perform a scan of your computer," you are witnessing an infected web page and rogue software that is trying to get on your computer.
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