Spyware Remover: Free Spyware, Adware Removal Programs, Popup Blockers

By Debbie Jacobsen

If you download music, games, screensavers, or just about any program or file online, there is a good chance your laptop or PC is infected with adware and/or spyware. It is estimated that over 60% of computers are infected with dangerous spyware or adware, and this number jumps to over 90% for people who download things online.

Spyware and adware usually installs without your knowledge, and runs silently in the background. Designed to use very little in the way of system resources, spyware normally shows no symptoms - until it’s too late! When your laptop or PC starts to show some signs of spyware, it is usually so heavily infested that a total hard drive reformat is necessary in order to get rid of all traces of this pesky malware.

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Spyware is used by cyber criminals to secretly capture personal information, hijack your computer, or track your whereabouts online. Adware is not usually as dangerous as spyware, but does invade on your privacy. Adware is designed to track your browsing and shopping habits in order to deliver targeted advertising to you in the form of popups or web browser redirection. Both adware and spyware are bad, and NOT something you want on your laptop or PC.

Some signs that your computer may be infested with dangerous spyware or adware are: Very slow computer performance or activity lights on your broadband router are flashing rapidly (generally indicates spyware

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By Paul Wilcox

Fighting viruses and getting rid of them is big business right now. The first step is knowing just what the enemy is.

THE ENEMY - Hackers and Crackers

Computer geeks say that there is a difference between hackers and crackers. Crackers do damage to systems they break into while hackers just want to see how everything works. We’ll use the more common term of hacker. Originally the term hacker was someone who made furniture with the use of an axe.

A virus is “malware” for your computer. This is a term that covers all kinds of software that is malicious. The most common types of malware are Trojans, worms, and viruses.

VIRUSES

Viruses are often hidden inside of other programs, for example installation programs that arrive to you through email attachments. When you run this host program the virus is executed. When the virus is in your computer memory it will be able to do a lot of damage such as infecting other computer programs.

Once the infection phase of the virus is complete the next stage begins: the destructive phase. Viruses will wait for a certain trigger, such as a date or the number of times that the virus has been copied, before the payload is delivered. The payload can be as simple as messages all the way to the deletion of files to the destruction of your operating system.

When viruses were first created they were often distributed on a floppy disk. As the Internet has grown, email and file downloads are the best way for viruses to be passed. Email can have attachments that can contain any type of computer file. Executable files can be loaded with viruses and therefore you shouldn’t run them unless you’re sure that they are virus free.

WORMS

Worms are much like viruses because they are self-copying. They can reproduce across multiple networks without human aid, such as through the sending of emails. Worms, however, don’t need an executable program in order to be passed along.

A worm can affect a computer network more than it can infe!
ct compu
ters that are on that network. Because they self-copy they can overload the resources on a network. This can cause slow downs in the speed of data transfers by using a large amount of bandwidth…more bandwidth than is needed for normal network traffic. Any network that routes traffic on the Internet is simply known as software and hardware that is specialized. Both software and hardware can be bothered by malware.

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A worm can be created to carry payloads by using an installation program through the backdoor. A backdoor is an access point into the computer that is hidden. The worm uses the backdoor and ignores the usual procedure for login. Backdoors are often used by spammers so that they can send junk email.

TROJAN HORSES

A Trojan horse is another kind of malware. A Trojan horse is a computer program that acts as though it will do one thing when it will actually do something different. This term comes from the story of Troy, a city which was deceived by the Greeks to get into the inner city undetected. A Trojan horse can’t replicate itself the way viruses and worms can.

A Trojan horse can be hidden in software that is otherwise useful. When a Trojan horse starts it can do such things as corrupt files, install backdoors, erase data, and keep track of keystrokes. This information will enable hackers to steal your personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers.

COMBATING MALWARE

In this series we will talk about what you can do to fight malware. Until then it’s important to just be passive and not expect that your computer problems will be taken care of by someone else. Combating viruses needs the involvement of users, webmasters, and software vendors.

Paul Wilcox writes about internet privacy and security issues for the Internet Security Squad website. Get more helpful information and advice a! t get="_new" href="http://www.internetsecuritysquad.com">http://www.internetsecuritysquad.com

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For additional Spyware Remover information
and resources visit Spyware Remover.
(http://www.spyware-remover-free.net)
===========================================

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By Paul Wilcox

A pop-up is an advertisement that keeps popping up annoyingly on your computer screen while you’re browsing on the Internet. The goal of pop-ups is to get your attention and then send you to vendor websites that sell something or just want to grab your email address.

As the web page is loading a pop-up will appear, usually with the help of javascript. Javascript is a language for programming that is placed in HTML code as a website is built.

There are some pop-ups that can be very useful. You might get a pop-up on a web page when you click on a link. You’ll be asked for some information or it will give you some information. There are some music websites that use pop-ups to play music using a special window for the player. This use for a pop-up is legitimate but there are other pop-up ads that show up without you wanting them.

It’s the javascript that maintains that size of the pop-up window and which elements will be displayed. There are times when the menu or the status bar is hidden from your view. This makes it impossible for you to navigate from the pop-up. The only options you have are to use the “x” to close the box or to click on the ad itself and be directed to the advertiser’s site. Both are annoying options.

There are some pop-ups that are malicious and/or managed very poorly. Javascript will cause several windows to open. When you close one of these windows, more will open in its place. You’ll need to exit your browser to get out of this cycle.

There is a new pop-up that is created with the use of Flash. It can be programmed so that it follows your mouse around or else it floats around on the screen as you scroll up or down.

Pop-ups aren’t just created using Flash and Javascript. Adware can also create pop-ups according to whatever content is on the web page. Adware is software that is supported by ads which are displayed whenever you access the program. There are times, however, when adware is referring to programs that are hidden and will send advertisi!
ng to yo
ur computer. This type of program will look for particular keywords on an Internet web page and then produce ads that are centered around these words.

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The “pop under” is another type of pop-up. This pop-up will stay hidden until you exit the window. This type of pop-up is less annoying than other pop-ups but can still be a nuisance. Advertisers know no end to tricks.

Because pop-ups are so annoying many Internet browsers will have some type of way to kill them. The latest browser version will usually have these tools integrated into them.

There are also some utilities that you can run to kill a pop-up. These utilities can be automated and many of them are free to use. You’ll want to download one today so that you can surf without pop-ups. That is, unless you like looking at advertising.

Paul Wilcox writes about internet security and other related topics for the Security Manor website. Get more helpful information about protecting yourself against online threats at http://www.securitymanor.com

===========================================
For additional Spyware Remover information
and resources visit Spyware Remover.
(http://www.spyware-remover-free.net)
===========================================

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By Peter O’Brien

A virus is computer code that somehow finds its way into your computer without your knowledge. It interacts with your computer’s operating system and memory and does troublseome things in your computer, often without your knowledge. Most people don’t even know they have been infected by a virus until, all of a sudden, their computer slows down to a crawl or doesn’t work at all. This happens when the virus is using all the available memory that used to be used to run your programs. Severe viruses can destroy hard drives, ruin software programs, delete important files, steal your identity and cost the victim a great deal of money and time. Some viruses can, all by themselves, move throughout networks and sneak by security systems. Viruses are very bad and need to be kept out of your computer.

It seems the first virus appeared when the Internet was just beginning and only used by the Department of Defense and several universities. Since then they have become much more sophisticated and even more dangerous. All viruses are made by human beings and, sadly, there are lots of bad guys out there that make them either for profit (as a way to attach itself to programs into your computer and then copy every keystroke you make, including your credit card information) or because they are sick puppies with way too much time on their hands.

Almost all viruses are attached to a program, executable file. These files end in extensions like .exe and .com. This means that the virus is harmless until that specific program is opened or started. Then the mayhem begins. This is why it is very dangerous to open an e-mail attachment unless you know exactly who sent it AND what is in the attachment.

What about worms and Trojan horses? A worm is a type of virus that can duplicate itself and use up lots of your computer’s memory. However, a worm can’t attach itself to another program. It just raises general havoc within the memory. Like a good wine, it also travels well. Worms take advantage of file transfer fea!
tures in
your operating system to easily move from computer to computer. E-mail files are a great example of this ability. A worm is not attached to a program file like a virus, but has the ability to continually replicate itself. For example, it can attach itself to every name in your e-mail address book and send itself, in an e-mail, to all your contacts. Then the same thing happens to them and on, and on and on. They consume so much system memory and network bandwidth (the size of your Inter or Intranet pipeline) that they can bring web servers, network servers and individual work stations to their knees. Worms used to be just for slowing down networks and computers. Now, more sophisticated versions tunnel into computers and allow the bad guys to remotely control your computer.

Readers of Homer’s Odyssey know the Trojan Horse appeared to be a gift from the people of Troy to the citizens of Athens. Instead, soldiers were hidden inside the giant wooden horse and at night they slipped out and easily conquered the sleeping Greek city. A computer Trojan horse works the same way. It appears to be a legitimate piece of software that is good and helpful, but once it is opened mischief quickly occurs. Trojan horses used to only cause silly problems like changing desktop icons or wallpaper. Now they can destroy files and more significantly create a “back door” on your computer where bad people can enter, without your knowledge, and gain access to your personal information. Of course, this only happens when your computer is on line. However, with more and more people using broadband Internet access and always leaving their computers on, Trojan horses are becoming very common. The good news is that, by definition, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves and they don’t infect other files.

Another type of virus is called an e-mail virus. That’s because it arrives in your e-mail. E-mail viruses can be viruses, worms or Trojan horses, but need to be mentioned separately, because e-mail is an important part of o!
ur cultu
re and most of us send and receive e-mail every day. E-mail viruses arrive as attachments to seemingly innocent e-mails. However the second you open the attachment, the virus in unleashed on your unsuspecting computer. To prevent this, simply follow a few basic rules.

1. Do not, under any circumstances, open an attachment unless you know who sent it AND exactly what is in that attachment. Remember, a worm can hijack any e-mail list and send infected e-mails without the sender’s knowledge.

2. Anti-virus filters look for files that end in .exe and .com. These are executable programs and a dead giveaway that the attachment is a virus. The bad guys know this and often hide these files in WinZip or Stuffit programs. Be especially careful of any attachment that arrives in a .zip or .sit format. Now we know a little about these nasty critters, what can we do to make sure our computer or network doesn’t get infected. Don’t underestimate the people who actually code the viruses. They are very smart computer geeks and understand far more than most of us about the vulnerabilities that are built into every computer, especially those with Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft Internet Explorer. That’s because since practically everyone uses Microsoft software, that’s where the attackers focus their efforts. Microsoft programers are constantly working to close holes in their software and they constantly offer updates and patches to guard against the virus invasion.

Therefore, the first step is to make sure you are keeping your software current with the latest updates. They’re free, and it only takes a couple of minutes. Use the automatic update feature that comes with your software and when it wants to download a patch or an update, let it. It may involve restarting your computer, but that better than a blank hard drive or letting someone steal your master card number. The automatic update program is found in your system tray on your Start Menu. That’s the list of programs found under the time in!

Next, consider installing anti-virus software. Some of the big names you may recognize are Norton Anti-Virus and McAffee. They are just a few of the many anti-virus programs on the market. You should also consider a firewall, which is part of or an easy add-on to most antivirus programs. Firewalls are hardware devices (if you have a network with a router, a basic firewall is probably part of the router) and more commonly, software programs. A firewall’s purpose is to keep your viruses, worms and Trojan horses from attacking your computer and from letting spyware files already in your computer establish an Internet connection with a site that can do damage to your computer or record your on-line activities. This is done through a series of filters that identify and block the bad files. If the firewall is part of a hardware component, like a router, it usually can’t be changed or updated. Software firewalls can be constantly updated as new viruses are discovered.

The anti-virus software works behind the firewall. It scans your computer for viruses and, more importantly, fixes problems caused by the virus. They place the virus in a quarantine folder so it can’t do any more damage. The programs also heal any legitimate files infected by the virus by stripping the bad code away from the good file. They do this in two ways. First, they compare files in your computer to the anti-virus dictionary that is part of!
the pro
gram and downloaded to your computer. They also look for suspicious behavior from any program that is running on your computer. For example, is a program, suddenly, trying to make an on-line connection. Anti-virus programs also provide automatic updates so the latest threats can be added to your computer. That is why most programs are sold on a subscription basis.

One problem with anti-virus programs is that they tend to use a lot of computer memory. Believe it or not, programs like Norton and McAffee actually have up to 15 programs running in the background (you don’t know they are running on your computer, but they are) while you are working on your computer. If you don’t have enough memory, these programs can slow your computer down just like real viruses. That’s why you need to make sure you have enough memory in your computer before you install anti-virus software. While most programs recommend 128 KB (kilobytes) of RAM (random access memory) installed on your computer, we recommend you install at least 256 (kilobytes) of RAM (random access memory). Memory isn’t that expensive and is easy to install. It’s better than staring at a “slower than molasses” computer. Jamison Software recommends AVG Anti-Virus System as the best anti-virus program we have used. We run AVG Anti-Virus System from Grisoft, Ltd. on our computer and are totally satisfied for the following reasons:

1. AVG only runs 3 programs in the background which means your computer will simply run faster. We run high memory usage programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash on our computers and quickly found there was no difference in performance after AVG was installed.

2. Their customer service department reacts quickly to identify and update the directory when new viruses are discovered. To test their response, we ran a computer on-line, without a firewall for three months. During that period, two viruses, that were not found in the AVG directory attacked our computer. Within hours !
updates
adding these viruses to the directory were added to the automatic downloads and the viruses were purged from our test computer. If you are in the market for a great anti-virus program, we strongly recommend the AVG Anti-Virus System with Firewall. You can purchase the program or get a free 30 day trial at www.jamisonsoftware.com.

To learn more about AVG and other software please go to =>http://www.jamisonsoftware.com