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Arm Yourself Against Snoops With Spyware Counterintelligence
By Heather Wallace, Thu Dec 8th
Spyware is the cyber-equivalent of a peeping Tom. No one wouldthink of sitting by while someone hide in the bushes watchingtheir every move, so why do so many allow snoops tomoniter them online? In some cases the answer is simple. Theymay not even know that they are being watched. Spyware comes in all shapes and sizes. It can simply be annoyingor it can be downright dangerous. The more worrisome varietiesof can: 1. Slow down your system 2. Crash your PC 3. Log your keystrokes4. Log your email 5. Log your chat sessions 6. Steal credit carddetails 7. Capture passwords 8. Screen capture your display 9.Collect personal data 10. Collect financial information
What is the Purpose of Spyware? There are many different parties who may want to collect yourpersonal, financial, or sensitive information and there areseveral reasons why they might want to have it. Usually spywareusers are: 1. Marketing Companies - They gather data from your PC aboutwhich sites you visit, which products you purchase, and detailsabout the email that you send. 2. Family Members - Even your own loved ones may be monitoringyour activity. Parents can use to keep tabs on the sitesthat their children frequent and suspicious spouses could easilyuse to track their mates activity online. 3. Roommates - Roommates are also possible users. Forexample, when students enter college they must cohabitant withpeople that they don't even know. One of those people couldeasily be an unscrupulous person who is gathering importantinformation with spyware. 4. Employers - Many employers, concerned about employees wastingtime online, have installed snoopware on company computers. Thissoftware is designed to moniter both online and email activity.Your employer, therefore, could be monitoring you and judgingyou based not on your work performance, but rather on thecontent of your email and the sites that you visit while at work. 5. Crime Organizations - Thieves and all sorts of nefarioussorts use everyday to collect credit card details,social security numbers, passwords, etc. They then use thisinformation to steal your identity and, in the process, make aconsiderable amount of money while ruining your credit and yourreputation. 6. Identity Thieves - is a vital tool in an identiythefts arsenal. It allows them to gather detailed informationthat they can then use to masquerade as you. Is There More Than One Type of Spyware? Spyware is just a broad term for a variety of differentprograms. A few of the more common forms of include: 1. Adware - Those annoying pop-ups ads that plaster your screenfall into the category of adware. Adware also refers to anyadvertiser supported program. In order to display ads that aretargeted to your interests your activity is monitored and, basedon your habits,
you are shown ads that should be of interest toyou. Adware also puts a strain on your system resources becauseit must connect to a remote server in order to communicate yourpersonal information with whomever is monitering you. 2. Keystroke Loggers - This type of logs everything thatyou type. Whether that is a personal note, a password, or acredit card number. Anything and everything that you type iscaptured and forwarded to the person watching your activity. 3. Browser Hijackers - This form of will commonly changeyour home page to a so-called search page that is filled withless-than-useful pay-per-click results. This flavor of spywarealso logs the URLs that you visit. 4. Snoopware - This variety of can monitor a PC user'severy action. In addition, these programs were specificallydesigned to go undetected by the person being monitored.Snoopware used to be primarily found only in the workplace, but,as snoopware became more affordable, its usage grew. Employers,suspicious spouses, coworkers, parents, and strangers are just afew of the people that may unleash snoopware on your system. How Invades Your System Without Warning The sad fact is that you have probably installed a verymalicious program on your computer without evenrealizing it. Your system may been infected with if youhave ever downloaded: 1. File-sharing programs 2. Freeware 3. Shareware 4. Music 5.Games 6. Screensavers 7. Video clips 8. Pictures Even some programs that can be purchased in stores containspyware. Spy(ware Detection) vs. Spy(ware) It would be virtually impossible to prevent on your own.Even the most hyper-vigilant defense would most likely letspyware slip through the cracks. The only way to absolutelyensure that your system is protected is to monitor your computerwith prevention and removel software. A firewall is another invaluable resource that should be used inconjunction with a prevention and removal program. Thefirewall monitors your PC's Internet connection and shields itfrom unwanted actions by third-parties. In doing this itprevents from connecting with remote sites without yourpermission. Once infiltrates your system it can be quite a chore toremove. Uninstalling the program that was bundled with thespyware won't do it. That will only remove the main applicationfrom your system, while the application remains. Afterspyware has entered your computer your best course of action isto install a prevention and removal program. In additionto preventing infection these programs will also removethe that has already infected your system. About the author:Heather Wallace is a writer whose work has been published innational, regional, and online publications. Additionally, shehas written articles as a newspaper correspondent. Visithttp://www.fetchingsites.com/SpywareIntel.html to run a freespyware detection scan on your computer.
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