Collin S Quarry asked:


Spyware Fact 1 - Spyware is malicious software placed on your computer without your knowledge!

Spyware can infect your PC when you visit online web sites offering free downloads of music, movies or games. Spyware can even infect your system when you install seemingly legitimate software on your computer. Spyware infects millions of PCs worldwide and even experienced internet and computer users are often infected because of the stealthy and malicious nature of spyware.

Spyware Fact 2 - Spyware can track everything you do online!

The main purpose of spyware is to track a the habits and gather information about a user. The reason for this is that the information regarding visiting trends and habits is worth millions of dollars to companies, and many people will use this unethical tactic to gather such information. Depending on the level of infection, spyware can harvest relatively harmless information such as how long a user stays on a website, to extremely sensitive information such as credit card information and personal details.

Spyware Fact 3 - I’m infected! How do I get rid of Spyware?

Spyware can be removed from you computer system by installing and researching about anti-spyware software available online. It is recommended that you run these programs weekly or even daily. After you have scanned your computer, it is recommended that you reset you computer as some of these malicious programs “cloak” themselves from removal unless the anti-spyware software is started before your operating system has initiated. In some cases, the damage that spyware causes to the system is beyond repair and requires a complete reformat of the system. To avoid such a scenario from happening, it is imperative to always be up to date in terms of internet security and to create multiple backups of important files and documents periodically.

Spyware Fact 4 - How do I determine which sites and files are safe for me to access?

One of the most effective ways of avoiding contact with spyware is by avoiding downloading “warez” or pirated software online from untrusted sources. Downloading “free” pirated software will sometimes come with the price of having malicious programs hidden within the software which will infect your system when the program is started. Do not open untrusted and unsolicited emails, if you use a free web mail service such as Gmail or Hotmail, the spam folder may contain emails which are placed there for a reason, do not open them and make sure to clean our your mailbox as often as possible.

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