Tip O’Tex Computer Club

June 2005 Newsletter

Spyware – Adware – Malware

Did you know that when a PC is infected with spyware that every keystroke, every website and every conversation could be recorded or monitored by the people or companies that may have secretly installed software on your PC. The consequences of spyware and adware infections can include banking and identity theft, unusual computer problems, slow Internet access, changed browser homepage, search pages or favorites, and excessive numbers of adware generated ads.

One generally agreed upon definition of spyware states that it is software that tracks personal information about you and transmits that information to third parties. Some spyware also installs itself along with software that you knowingly want to install on your PC. Additionally, spyware transmits data about your surfing habits to third parties. In other words, spyware behaves a lot like a Trojan horse.

One way to avoid getting spyware on your computer is to avoid all of the freebie things you see – like a free dinner at your favorite restaurant, or the really cute screen savers or smilies. Yes, they sound good, but there is a heavy price to pay for those free things – your privacy.

Some programs are considered spyware by most people. Programs such as MyWebSearch, anything from Gator, Wild Tangent, AvenueA, etc. We don’t intend to download and install those programs, but they come along with other things we DO download.

So, how do we avoid these problems? Until laws are passed that prevent people from putting that stuff on our computers, the best thing we can do is to keep our computers clean. There are two widely-accepted programs that can do just that – Ad-Aware, from Lavasoft and Spybot Search and Destroy.

At least half of the computers I’ve seen on my travels this summer, are without any spyware cleaning programs, or are using old versions. When people have asked “Why is my computer running so slow lately?” my standard answer has been “Because you have spyware.”

This is a growing concern among the computer industry, and you’ll find a lot of spyware cleaning programs out there. Some of them are, in fact, spyware themselves. Why buy a program that will slow your computer down even more than it is now? There are programs that will keep spyware from getting to your computer, but you’ll find that they also prevent you from going some places on the Internet.

How do you keep your computer clean?

1. Download both Ad-Aware and Search & Destroy.

2. Install both programs, getting the latest updates.

3. With Search & Destroy, be sure to click on Immunize and follow the instructions for immunizing.

4. Update and run both of these programs at least once a week, and if you continue to have more than 1 or 2 items each time, run them more often.

5. As with anti-virus programs, these programs run on a database, and if you don’t get updates regularly, you’re working with old information.

You can get both of these programs (and other handy tools) from www.connecting-point.net/tools (that’s my grandson’s site, so I trust it.) Do not RUN both programs at the same time. Neither of these programs run in the background. You have to open each of them and “operate” them. For a review of several spyware removal programs, go to http://www.download.com/1200-2023_4-5143672.html

With Search & Destroy, after you update and immunize, click on the Search & Destroy icon on the left, then click on “Check for Problems” – and when the program has run, you’ll see a list of what you don’t want on your computer – with green checkmarks already showing (in most cases, anyway) and all you have to do is click on “Fix Selected Problems” on the toolbar. Once in a while you’ll be told that the program should run again the next time you start up your computer. The reason for that is that you have something running that Windows thinks it needs. Answer “yes” and then re-start the computer. Search & Destroy will run before Windows loads, and this may take 15-20 minutes. Just be patient.

To run Ad-Aware, first be sure you’re running the latest version. If you’re using Ad-Aware 6.0, you should get the new one, Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition, build 1.06. If you’re using build 1.05, you’ll get a notice about the new build that is now available. When you install a new version, or new build, it will ask if you want to uninstall the old one – let it. At the end of the installation, there are checkmarks already in place for updating, running and reading the help file. Leave those checkmarks there and finish the installation. When Ad-Aware is finished running, with the new version you can click on Next, right from the Scanning Summary tab, and that will remove all items. If you want to see what those individual items are, click on “Critical Objects” tab. But be sure you allow the program to remove any items it finds.