Google was a handy source of references to a law school student whose thesis was on money laundering. As a resource, this tool was very advantageous to the student during the writing of her paper. Several months after beginning this research, she began experience problems with being redirected towards sites not related to money laundering when she typed certain words.

Her hopes of it being an easy to repair problem with the internet or the search engine were dashed as the glitch refused to go away, and she was forced to concede that she had likely been bugged. Despite being annoying, when the bugging comes from a human, it can be gotten rid of. Adware and spyware, the computer bugs that infected the law school student’s computer, are not as easy to get rid of as human bugs. The law school student was definitely not an advanced student of technology, as she typically only used her computer for school related purposes of research and writing.

Many computer problems that give people like the student in the above scenario difficulty are caused by spyware and adware. In 2000, the word ’spyware,’ which had been around since 1995, became a fixture in most people’s computer dialogue. This refers to any software program or script which allows admission to the computer owner’s personal information.

This can be done through studying keystrokes, logging web browsing activities, and perhaps most worrying of all, the contents stored on a user’s hard drive. Although James Bond would be proud of the methods, these types of home infiltration via spyware happen every day in the real world. Calling people affected by these attacks victims is accurate, as no one wishes to have their online activities monitored. Spyware may help track criminals and their activities, but this type of program is used far more often for such vile activities as tracking credit card information from unsuspecting victims. Because of the hostile nature of these potential infiltrations, every computer should have an updated anti-spyware program.

In attempting to protect yourself, you should block not only spyware, but adware and malware, which are similar programs, as well. Spyware and adware blocker programs can be obtained online. These programs both remove and disable existing bugs and help prevent the future installation of similar malicious software.

In Closing

By preventing typical computer usage, spyware, adware, and malware can be just as troublesome for the average computer user as the self replicating viruses and worms. Both the individual programs and the computer itself can experience a drastic decline in speed after the computer has been infected with these programs. Along with the trouble they cause, occasionally spyware is sneaky enough to hide from detection, which allows the crime to continue unpunished. Being proactive with a good blocker is the way that a computer owner should protect his system from allowing these programs to cause his computer harm.