How many spyware items are infecting your computer?
I just had, by mistake a plug-in called Intelligent Explorer attach to my browser. What a nightmare! I have another article on this topic, but this brings home a point. Spyware or adware items are continually infecting computers. Most computers have no protection from them. Most frightening is the frequency of them. From the InfosecWriters web site, "According to a 2004 survey by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance, 91% of users questioned were familiar with the term spyware. Only 53% believed their computers were infected, but a scan found that 80% of their PC's had some type of spyware installed on them." It goes on to say, "...The average number of sypware components per computer was 93 with one computer having well over a thousand."
What is Sypware?
The term 'spyware' is broadly defined as any program that gets into your computer without permission and hides in the background while it makes unwanted changes to your user experience. Spyware is generally not designed to damage your computer. The damage it does is more a by-product of its main mission, which is to serve you targeted advertisements or make your browser display certain sites or search results.
At present, most spyware targets only the Windows operating system (Internet Explorer)."
To be fair, spyware can be harmless, for example tracking cookies don't do much. While such things infringe on your privacy, they don't really harm anything. Others, however are extremely dangerous. If by chance you have an extremely slow PC, downloaded music, or your homepage keeps changing, there ia good chance your PC is infected.
Finally, as drastic as it seems, if your computer has been infected with a large number of sypware programs, the only solution you may have is backing up your data, and performing a complete reinstall of the operating system.
To find out more go to: http://syponcomp21.blogspot.com
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Teresa Stewart
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