Spyware Protection, Part 1
Sunday, August 24, 2008
What is spyware ?
Spyware is nothing but a script or a tiny software or a cookie or something like that which is used to gather information about the victim computer with/without prior knowledge of the user.
What they can do?
Though spywares can do a lot of things starting from simply displaying some ad products to extremely altering computer settings. They can display multitude no of ads via popup even they change your browsers setting to search specific queries to display their/affiliated products to generate revenue. There are some intelligent spywares which are so smart that they can change the firewall settings of your computer to enable access of unwanted sites and when you try to remove them from the registry editor they will intercept you doing that. Another major problem is some time they will connect to some expensive calls while you dial your modem up to connect internet. The worst is that while they do so they use so much of your bandwidth that your internet speed becomes meaningless.
What type of data is gathered?
Mainly financial account information, computer registry information, email address and their passwords are collected. Spywares not only collect information but also maximum time they display commercial advertisements.
Types of Spyware
Spywares may come in many forms. Some of them are given below.
Adware: These are most common type. Their main function is to display a lot of pop up ads.
Trojans: These are installed to remotely spy for many important information and to make sever damages.
Cookies: They expose your important information though they cant send them to others. These are least dangerous.
How they have entered into your computer ?
During software installation: Many people install their softwares by downloading them form different websites which they are not knew earlier. Most of the free download websites embed a spyware script into the setup file. When you install the software you are also activating the script. So you should be more careful while installing a new software.
Drive by Downlaod: While browsing the web some times a popup appears and displays that a new plugin is required or a new version is available and asks for installation. The source may be real also maynot. If the soruce is real then no problem but if not then ? Whatever you click "Yes" or "No" the script starts installing the spyware.
Masquerading as anti-spyware: Some time you may have experinced that a message box appears while browsing and says that "your computer is slowing down. So it may be got affected by spyware and your computer needs a spyware search. So click "Yes" to start search". The message may appear to be genuine. But while you accepts this it starts search but at the background it installs the spyware script.