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** STRICTLY FOR HOME USE ONLY.
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9 OUT OF 10 PCS ARE INFECTED WITH SPYWARE OR ADWARE Is Spyware and Adware a big problem? There are currently over 78,000 spyware and adware programs that are infecting innocent Internet users such as yourself through downloadable games, music, screensavers, pictures, pop-ups, emails, and the list goes on and on. Spyware and Adware can cause your PC to run extremely slow and even crash, and allow hackers and advertising companies to invade your privacy whenever they wish. So yes, spyware and adware is a big problem that you must be aware of in order to protect your PC from possible harm. What is Spyware? Spyware applications are programs and files that hide on your PC's hard drive without your direct knowledge. These programs allow hackers and advertising companies to track your every move, both online and even when you work offline. They can track the websites you visit, the items that you buy online, the emails you send and receive, your Instant Message dialog, and worst of all they can even record your credit card number, personal identification numbers, and all of your passwords. If you use dial-up to connect to the Internet then spyware can be used to bill 900 numbers to your phone bill. This is just a short list of the harm that spyware can cause. What is Adware? Adware applications are installed onto your PCs hard drive by Internet advertising companies that allow them to inundate you with pop-up ad after pop-up ad all day long. Have you ever noticed a strange icon on your desktop or start menu and wondered where it came from? Have you ever logged on to the Internet to find that your home page had been switched? Are there strange search bars on every page you visit? These are all adware programs. These program can place icons almost anywhere on your PC, they can change your home page whenever they wish, and they control your google search results so you see the results that they want you to see. How can Spyware and Adware infect my computer? Have you ever downloaded something off of the Internet? If so, then there is a strong chance your PC is infected! What are computer viruses, Trojans and worms? Simply stated, a virus, Trojan or worm is a small program written to cause harm to one or more computers or networks. A Virus, Worm or Trojan can also be designed to retrieve information from your computer to be delivered to an attacker for future use. For example credit card information, passwords, and security access codes. More specifically, a virus is a parasitic program designed to enter a personal computer clandestinely. The virus attaches itself to files or boot sectors and is self-replicating. A Trojan (or Trojan horse) is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application. It is designed to cause your computer to do something that is unexpected. Since it does not spread (not self-replicating) it is not really a virus. A worm is a parasitic program designed to replicate itself on your computer and then spread to other computers via email (through your address book) or an IRC (chat program). Worms are designed by coders for advertising agencies to gain lists of legitimate email addresses for use in marketing. They can also be designed to slow down networks, thus giving other competitors an edge in their fields. Though this is not always the case, mostly they are just designed to create TCP/IP & SMTP chaos. What is a hacker or cracker? In the truest sense of the word, a "hacker" is a dedicated programming expert who believes in sharing his expertise and experiences with other hackers. A hacker does not believe in vandalizing or maliciously destroying data, or in stealing data of any kind. On the other hand there is the "cracker", a cyber burglar or vandal, an individual or group intent on causing malicious harm to a network or computer, or to steal information beneficial to themselves like passwords, credit card numbers and the like. For ease of use, the term "hacker" will be used here to refer to either a hacker or cracker, as someone who enters or tries to enter your computer or network without authorization. How can I tell if my computer has been "hacked" or broken into? Some telltale symptoms are:
Spyware eradication in three steps: Spyware (a.k.a. adware) is typically bundled with shareware and includes a mechanism for tracking your online behavior and reporting it to a centralized server. The centralized server builds a profile of your browsing characteristics and serves advertising and pop-ups that suit your online habits. It isn't a bad concept: Instead of bombarding you with random advertisements, someone somewhere decided to let you develop your own advertising profile and then feed you ads that are targeted to your online behavior. However, bad idea or good, spyware has no place on the company's LAN. 1. Disallow it 2. Block it The best way to block ad sites is to send the ad request from your Web browser to the host machine's loop-back address. To do this, add a 127.0.0.1 bad_ad_site.com entry in the host file of every machine on your network. Then, when a Web page contains a reference to an ad located on the bad_ad_site.com server, your browser will first consult the hosts file to locate the IP address before sending a DNS request for the ad site content. The request for content will appear blank in the browser, so no cookies or spyware will be loaded or accessed. Rather than spending months developing your own list of ad servers to enter into your hosts file, you can use Gorilla Design Studio's list, which contains over 17,000 entries. 3. Remove it You'll need a tool to remove the programs, cookies, and harmful registry entries on spyware-infected machines. I prefer Ad-aware Professional from LavaSoft. This tool removes spyware and provides real-time protection from an impressive list of spyware programs. Removing spyware programs is essential to regaining control over your network security. Final thoughts Before purchasing software to stop or block spyware or adware, take a look at the policy that allowed it to land on your machines. Software add-ons aren't a cure for poor or lax security. Improve security by crafting a comprehensive group policy on software installation and Internet Explorer policy settings. Stop providing valuable information about your LAN and your users, and regain control of your network. Block all advertisements and don't dilute the administrative right to install programs. Users aren't responsible for network security; we are. Back To Top Overview of Sygate Personal Firewall Sygate Personal Firewall provides security in a user-friendly interface, protecting your PC from hackers, Trojan horses, and DOS attacks. New features include deep-packet inspection, anti-application-hijacking, a log dampener, and enhanced logging. Sygate Personal Firewall is the first free PC firewall to offer protection from malicious code intrusions, keeping the information on your PC safe and private. Review of Sygate Personal Firewall This free, easy-to-use firewall presents itself as a quality option for those seeking protection from the Net nasties. We like Sygate Personal Firewall's handy and clear interface, which lets you quickly disable the firewall and access dialog windows via the system-tray icon. This application is a good bet for beginners because it's not necessary to configure any settings to get started. When the utility detects a program trying to connect to the Web for the first time, it asks you whether to allow or disallow access and remembers the setting. Advanced users can set permissions manually for any group of applications, such as a range of trusted IPs and protocols. The program didn't slow down our computer and took about 8MB of RAM. Password protection stops other users, such as children or employees, from changing settings or turning off the firewall. Whether you're new to firewalls or have used them before, this free option should be on your shortlist. Note: Sygate Personal Firewall is free for personal use. Download at: http://www.tucows.com/preview/213160 Overview of ZoneAlarm An effective and easy-to-use firewall program, ZoneAlarm does a great job of keeping your PC safe from a variety of threats. ZoneAlarm makes configuring a firewall, which sounds like a daunting task to the majority of computer users, incredibly easy with a wizard. Maintaining and updating settings also is a snap when you're using the stylish interface and its simple slider controls. The program's Zones feature also allows you to assign different security levels for a local network and for the Internet. We found ZoneAlarm very good at recognizing and automatically including settings for our local network. In all our tests, the firewall guarded against all external and internal threats it encountered. Therefore, we think ZoneAlarm is an excellent firewall choice for just about any average user. Or: www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=zonealarm&tg=dl-2001 Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm in trying to see if something snooped into your computer, too :) Download at: www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html Overview of Ad-aware (Advertisement Software) While the Internet is a powerful resource and provides users with many useful and often entertaining things to see and do, it also has its dark side. Most people are familiar with freeware, shareware, cookies, media players, interactive content, and file sharing. What they may not realize is that some of the aforementioned may contain code or components that allow the developers of these applications and tools to actually collect and disseminate information about those using them. They can track your surfing habits, abuse your Internet connection by sending this data to a third party, profile your shopping preferences, hijack your browser start page or pages, alter important system files, and can do this without your knowledge or permission. The security and privacy implications of these exploits should be quite obvious and undesirable on any system or network! Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. With the release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes the fight against Spyware to the next level. Download Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.05at: www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). Highlights include automatic update functionality, the AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run, free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product, and AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files. AVG Free Edition is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only. Use of AVG Free Edition within any organization or for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. Your use of AVG Free Edition shall be in accordance with and is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the AVG Free Edition License Agreement which accompanies AVG Free Edition. Note: The software will automatically update itself when you are connected to the internet. Be sure to close all programs (especially Microsoft Outlook) before installing. It is better to run it online than to save it to PC. Upon completion, it will show that AVG anti-virus was installed successfully. Proceed to download/install latest updates before using it. Download FREE (home use only) at: cheers to a clean PC! |
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