What is Spyware?

Spyware is Internet jargon for a program that secretly gathers information about you.  Spyware works a lot like Adware.  The difference is that spyware is installed without your knowledge or permission.  Once installed, spyware runs secretly in the background monitoring where you go on the internet and what you do and sends this information back to someone else.  Most of the time, the information that spyware gathers is used by advertisers but it can also be used to scan files on your hard drive, snoop other applications such as chat programs or programs you use when you’re not on the Internet, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change your browser’s home page .  Some spyware can install software that looks for a phone line and modem and then calls long distance or over seas phone numbers which results in phone bill in the thousands at the end of the month.  More important, spy ware can be used to gather very private information about you, like your email addresses, passwords, social security information, bank account numbers and credit card numbers.

Spy ware most often comes as a hidden part of freeware or shareware programs that you download from the Internet.  When you install those programs, you also install the spyware.  It is important to remember that not all companies who claim their software contains adware are really offering adware. There is always a chance that the adware is really spyware.

Aside from the questions of ethics and respecting your privacy, spyware steals from you by using your computer's memory and other resources to send information back to it’s home base through your Internet connection.  Spyware can prevent you from accessing secure services, cause your computer to slow down or become unstable and even crash

While you may not realize your computer is infected with spyware, there are some signs that it’s on your computer. If you notice any changes to your Web browser that you didn’t make like extra toolbars or different homepage settings, as well as changes to your security settings and favorites list, you could have spyware running on your system. Other signs of a spyware infection are pop-up ads that don’t have anything to do with the Web site you're visiting; usually spyware advertisements aren’t displayed in the same way as the ads you would normally see on your favorite Web sites. You may also see advertisements when you're not browsing the Web. Clicking links that don’t work or take you somewhere you didn't expect, a sluggish system, or your system taking longer to load the Windows desktop are all signs that your computer may be infected with spyware.

Things you can to do to reduce your risk of being infected with spyware are:  

	Install, properly configure, and continuously run anti-adware and anti-spyware software;
	Keep your anti-adware and anti-spyware programs up-to-date;
	Run your anti-adware and anti-spyware programs as frequently as possible or at least after active Internet browsing;
	Don’t download browser tool bars as many of these contain spy-ware;
	Be very selective about what you download from the internet;
	Never use file-sharing programs (i.e. KazaA, EDonkey, or Bearshare just to name a few);
	If possible, when installing software choose a "custom" install (Many software packages include direct marketing programs in their installation packages and using a custom install will let you avoid installing these programs;
	Never, ever rely solely on your Anti-Virus software to protect you from these programs as many do not catch them.

Some of the anti-spyware programs we've had good results from are:

	Anti-Spyware programs for sale: Max Secure Software's Max Spyware Detector Paretologic Anti Spyware Stopzilla!
	Free Anti-Spyware programs: Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition Microsoft's Windows Defender Safer Networking's Spybot Search & Destroy