How To Stop Spyware From Infecting Your System

Spyware is becoming more and more of a problem. When I visit a cusomters site and inspect the computers I always find some kind of spyware on the system. I know that many people have been unaware of spyware, but hopefully now that the word is spreading that people will be more aware of the problem and setup a good defense. I get a get calls or questions to the effect of "Why is my computer running so slow? I just bought the computer recently". Most of the time this is because of spyware. Spyware programs will load on boot up and take up your computer memory that will reduce your performance. I will go over my typical setup to prevent and battle spyware. This system works if all of the current spyware has been removed properly. I will leave that to another article. Spyware is loaded on a computer over the Internet without the user knowing. It is loaded in the background through holes in a user's computer setup. Internet Explorer has been very vulnerable to spyware and is a major reason why so many people are getting infected. Spyware ranges from more benign programs to more extreme programs that will hijack your browser's startup page or cause pop ups to occur relentlessly. The following is the defense system that I use, and I strongly suggest that you use. Download and install all of the latest updates to your software. Once a week you should be checking for software updates to install. This will help protect you against the latest threats. Use a firewall. Many people have a direct connection the Internet and do not setup and run a personal firewall. This can potentially be very dangerous. Firewalls should be running for protection against many potential problems including hackers, spyware, and data protection. Windows XP has a built in firewall. Make sure you have updated your system to Service Pack 2 (SP2) if you have Windows XP. Microsoft has added many security features and fixed bugs in this update and should be updated as soon as possible. Sygate Personal Firewall is a free personal edition firewall that works pretty well. You can download it at http://www.safer-networking.org. Install and run Adaware. Adaware is another free spyware/adware detection and removal tool. I've found that using just one spyware detection tool is not enough. Using these two tools will detect and remove a majority of the spyware programs on your machine. This tool should be run in conjunction with Spybot. Again, make sure the latest updates are downloaded and installed each time Adaware is used. Download it at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ to download the latest version. The above spyware prevention system should help your computer or network stay protected and running at optimal performance. If you have never run a spyware program such as Spybot or Adaware I think you will be amazed at what is detected on your system. Sometimes I find over 100 suspect spyware programs installed on computers. No wonder your system is running slow. *Previously published at