Another Look At Spyware
Spyware seems to be the big problem lately with owning a personal computer, so here are a few articles that you should read:
How Spyware And The Weapons Against It Are EvolvingBy Brian PoseySpyware has reached epidemic proportions and is only getting worse. I have seen recent statistics indicating that approximately 95% of the world’s PCs are infected with spyware. Unfortunately, removal techniques that worked just a couple of months ago are no longer effective in many cases and new types of spyware being released are more advanced than most computer viruses. In this article, I will discuss why the spyware problem has gotten so out of hand and more importantly, what you can do about it. A couple of years ago, the worst thing that could happen to you while surfing the Internet was to get bombarded by pop up ads. Lately though, I feel like all I do is clean spyware. I have spent countless hours removing spyware from computers belonging to friends and family, only to have it re-appear a few days later. I try to help as many people as I possibly can, but the spyware problem has reached epidemic proportions and is only getting worse. I have seen recent statistics indicating that approximately 95% of the world’s PCs are infected with spyware. Unfortunately, removal techniques that worked just a couple of months ago are no longer effective in many cases and new types of spyware being released are more advanced than most computer viruses. In this article, I will discuss why the spyware problem has gotten so out of hand and more importantly, what you can do about it. Read the complete article. |
A First Look at Microsoft's Anti Spyware BetaBy Brian PoseyOver the last couple of years, spyware has grown from being a nuisance into being an epidemic. Although many tools exist for fighting spyware, they largely focus on the recovery of infected systems and have been mostly ineffective in the war against spyware. A few weeks ago however, Microsoft unveiled the first beta of their own anti spyware solution. Although this software is capable of disinfecting an infected system, its primary goal is to prevent the initial infection. In this article, I will explain how this software works and share my initial impressions of it with you. It never fails to amaze me how hostile of an environment the Internet really is. The Internet is loaded with Web sites containing malicious code. Accidentally landing on one of these sites can infect your computer with a plethora of ad ware or spyware modules. The scary part is that you may never even know that your computer is infected. While its true that some ad ware and spy ware infections are obvious because of the way that they hijack your browser, often times key stroke loggers and other Trojans are working silently in the background where you would never notice them. The worst part of spy ware and ad ware is how easy it is to get an infection. Not only are the owners of countless malicious Web sites doing everything that they can to deceive you into accidentally visiting their site, nowadays perfectly legitimate and otherwise harmless sites can spread infections. There have recently been reports of legitimate sites that sell ad space infecting PC’s because someone has imbedded malicious code within an ad. For the most part I have done a fairly good job of keeping spyware off of my machines, but I have lost count of how many machines that I have cleaned up for friends and family. A few months ago, I was listening to a speech by Bill Gates. In his speech, he made a comment that his own personal machines had become infected by spyware on more than one occasion, and that as a result, Microsoft was declaring war on spyware. At the time, no one was quite sure what this off handed comment really meant, but a few months have passed, and Microsoft has just released the first beta version of Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware. Read the complete article. |