Have
you ever been to a site and noticed the ads or banners changing
and turning into ads you wouldn't want your kids to see,
or went to a site and some of the letters were highlighted
with yellow, have you been getting so many pop ups that
you can't even surf the web? Then the chances are that you
have adware & spyware on your PC!
This is how I found out my PC was infected
- My son had been playing games at the "free games"
places. One day I was on his computer and went to look at
my site. Those awful people were changing the banners on
my site to dirty ones!! I was shocked and sad - because
I knew if other people had the same thing on their computers,
they would think that I made those bad ads!
What is spyware? Spyware are programs
on your PC that watch what you are doing online and they
collect personal information from you without your permission
and/or knowledge.
How did I get it? Well, the sad truth
is that these companies are pretty devious on how they install
themselves onto your PC. Sometimes all you have to do is
just visit a site and it will do a "drive-by"
download without your knowledge. (if you don't have your
PC settings to protect you) Sometimes these "parasites"
come from free games sites, downloading music from places
that do not have a license, from "shoppers helpers"
such as coupon toolbars and rebates places. Many of these
"helpers" also add extra Spyware/Adware into their
downloads without letting you know. And the problem is they
can be VERY difficult to remove!!!!
How do I get rid of it? Well for
me it was NOT easy! We tried everything but some of those
programs just would not let themselves be removed!! And
when I would try to go to a site to find out information
on how to get rid of it, the bad stuff on my PC wouldn't
let me look at the site. Those bad programs took control
of my PC!!! I tried going back to do a system restore to
an earlier date and even that did not work. So, what we
wound up having to do was a complete system restore! That's
right - completely reformat the PC!!!
How to keep from getting it again?
The very first thing you need to have is a Firewall. This
prevents programs from accessing your PC without your knowledge.
Install one before you start browsing online!! A good free
one: ZoneAlarm
Turn off Active-X!
On your PC go to: Internet options, security, custom level
- then click on "disable" where it says "Download
unsigned ActiveX controls" and "Initialize and
script ActiveX controls not marked as safe" -- This
will help prevent a kind of virus called a "backdoor
Trojan."
Next, you need a good program to get rid
of bad stuff if you happen to get them again! It "protects
you from known Data Mining, Browser Hijacking, Aggressive
Advertising, changes to sensitive areas of your registry,
forced downloads, Malicious Dialers, traditional Spyware,
etc" Lavasoft is free and you can get it here:
Lavasoft
Ad Aware
Also you need a good Anti-Virus program.
The one I use is great - it's free and it updates against
the latest threats to your PC. This anti-virus program is
called AVG and you can get it here:
AVG
free anti-virus
Microsoft has a very good article that goes
more into depth about protecting your PC and setting your
security levels in Internet Explorer here:
What
you should know about spyware
