Spyware and Anti-Virus

What is spyware:

Spyware is software that installs itself onto your computer and captures data about you. It could be something as mundane as sending the websites you visit to someone or sending your credit card or bank information to someone.

What is a virus:

A virus works just like a virus that a human would contract. It is a piece of software designed to infect your computer and spread itself to other computers. Lots of Spyware is spread by virtuses. Viruses usually have something bad that they do. Either delete files or they can be used to attack websites from your computer or something similar.

What is Malware:

Malware is all the above. It is software that either you chose to install or that tricked you into installing it or worked like a virus to install on your computer.

How did I get it?

Most people seem to think that the only way to get a virus is to surf the net on "those" kind of websites. This is untrue. If the website you are visiting has a flaw in it. People can change the site to infect you. Most of the time something comes up on the screen and you have click to install it. Sometimes this is not the case. I cannot tell you how many times I hear "oh my kids must have downloaded something" or some other kind of blame displacement. Everyone can get infected. Statistics show that a computer connected directly to the internet (no firewall) can get infected within 10 minutes of being connected. It takes many times longer than that to download the latest patches. two of the BIGGEST issues I see with most of the computers I work on are. 1 The computer has not had the latest Microsoft patches installed. The little yellow shield that is blinking at you every day is telling you something. 2. no antivirus software or it expired over a year ago. 3. Limewire is installed. Every computer I see with limewire installed is infected with many viruses. This is a GREAT place to get infected.

I have antivirus so I am ok!

NO! Antivirus programs can only detect viruses that it "knows" about. If your antivirus is not up to date. It cannot know about the new viruses. Even if it is up to date you are still at risk if you were infected with it before it updated. Many viruses can hide from antivirus or just turn them off. If your antivirus quits working that is a big sign you have a virus. Also your antivirus should be set to run a full scan every night. Most of them are not setup to do this automatically. You have to go into the software and tell it to do so.

What the heck are Cookies?

Some people will argue this but to me cookies are a problem of the past. A cookie is a little file that gets created when you access a website that uses them. Cookies can contain all sorts of data. Used correctly they do not keep any personal data. Back in the day companies were keeping usernames and passwords and even credit card info in cookies. So if you went to a malicious website they could read the cookie and get your information. This flaw was so big and so widely used that now it is almost obsolete to hear of anyone getting information from a cookie. Some other hazards are that malware can get on your computer and look at cookies to "see" where you have been surfing. The last thing I will say about cookies is this.. NO DELETING COOKIES WILL NOT SPEED UP YOUR COMPUTER. I have had hundreds of people tell me they deleted their cookies and their computer is running slow.

What are the chances I have a virus or spyware infection.

If you have a windows computer connected to the internet. You have a HIGH chance you are infected. It is VERY VERY rare that I hop on a computer that is not infected with something. I am not just talking about computers that customers bring me to fix. This is ALL computers.

How do I get rid of them?

A great program for malware is malwarebytes. You can obtain it from http://download.com you do not have to purchase it. You can use it for free to remove malware. If your computer is already infected with lots of malware. You may not be able to even get on the internet to download it. This is were I come in ;) A great antivirus program is Avira Antivir personal edition. This is also free at http://download.com make sure you get personal edition. There is a popup that appears 1 time a day that asks you to pay for it. If you want the popup to go away you can purchase it for something like $30. Avira is very good at finding viruses, keeping off viruses and it is also really fast. ALL antivirus programs will slow down your computer. Some way more than others. I have found Avira to be very fast.

If you have any questions about this subject. We can be found at Insta-TEK.com