The Spy Who Robbed Me: What You Need To Know About Spyware
With the exception of those who are competing in reality TVshows, who wants to be watched? Who wants to be seen in theirmost vulnerable and private moments? Who wants to be deprived ofhis privacy and his freedom to keep things for himself? Most importantly, who wants to jeopardize his security byunwittingly exposing the things he should be keeping a secret tosomeone who's watching from afar?Before you start thinking that we're referring to a psychopathicvoyeur who is observing you from the building adjacent to yourhouse, let us clarify that we're going to discuss about spyware.Yes. Spyware: a program which has been the bane to Internetusers for the past three years.Spyware is one of those things that were invented for a goodpurpose, but was eventually exploited in time. Spyware wasoriginally meant as a tool that would allow you to monitor theusage of your PC terminal while you're away from the keyboard sothat you can prevent illegal access to the same. Eventually, it found other borderline uses, like catching acheating spouse or significant other, prying on your daughter'sliaisons, and watching over your children's Internet activitiesfrom a remote computer.From pure to gray to black, spyware has now become a backdoor tohigh technology security protocols. It does this without hackingany system, rather, by deluding a user into unwittinglyinstalling the spyware program on his PC. From there, the program would work invisibly, sending key logs,or log files of the characters you have punched on yourkeyboard, to someone else on a remote terminal. This is whyspyware is also called as a key logger program.Eventually, spyware evolved into more damaging forms. Today, youwould have invisible scripts redirecting you to certain websiteswhich you have not chosen to view, or pop-ups that keepsprouting left and right even if you're viewing a pop-up freewebsite. This has led the Anti-Spyware Coalition, a group of industrygiants who are adversely affected by this digital malady aswell, to define spyware as something that "impairs users controlover material changes that affect their user experience, privacyor system security; use of their system resources, includingwhat programs are installed on their computers; or collection,use and distribution of their personal or otherwise sensitiveinformation."The security risks posed by spyware programs cannot be ignored.Imagine engaging in an online transaction wherein you send yourcredit card details in a secured network, only to stand losingsuch details once you log off as your key logs would be sent tosomeone else. Also, personal details can also be stolen,resulting into a greater risk for your actual safety.But it is the violation of your rights that is the biggestissue. With spyware, your freedom of choice and to feel secureabout your personal effects is deprived of you. This has no roomin a civilized society. Indeed, spyware is a modern day disease that should be curbed.It now comes in a variety of forms aside from the aforementionedkey loggers:ADWARE - is an invisible program that sends specificbanners for you to see. It may sound innocent, but this programactually compels your PC to send personal details to the mothersource so that the latter may know which ads to display. HIJACKERS - these are programs that take control of yourbrowsers, opening up pages which you do not choose to view. MALWARE - these are programs which are not spyware perse, but operate under the same principle. They are persistentscripts that don't seem to stop until your data are destroyed.Examples of these programs are Trojans and worm viruses. There are a lot of free tools in the World Wide Web that wouldallow you to rid your computer of these malicious programs.Sometimes, however, the process of cleaning up results in theloss of valuable files. The maxim "an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound ofcure" seems to be the best policy against spyware. Always updateyour anti-virus system, so that spyware may not be allowed toincubate in your hard drive.
About the Author
Sean Felker is the publisher of the very successful and popular Work at Home and Making Money on the Internet blog:http://try-marketing.com/workathome/
Tell others about
this page:
Comments? Questions? Email Here