A Five Part Series on Preventing/Removing/Detecting and Knowing Spyware/Malware/Adware.
This is a five part series of how to prevent, remove, and detect spyware. The series discusses topics like what is spyware, why is it potentially hazardous to your work and the health of Your PC, different types of spyware/malware, how to remove such spyware applications and so on.
Do note that this course is just meant as guide.
Course Part – I
Part – I discusses the definitions of spyware, adware, malware; how does this affect your work and your computer?
Index for Part I
1- What is Spyware, adware, malware?
2- What are the repercussions involved and how does Spyware/Malware affects your computer?
1) What is Spyware, adware and malware?
What is spyware? Well this question has been asked over a million times, by people all over the world. From Boardroom MBAs to local telemarketers, have been affected and infected by spyware, without their knowledge and/or consent. So what essentially is spyware?
A Spyware is an application software that gets installed on your personal computer, without the knowledge or/and consent of the user. It often executes itself stealthily, as a background process. The aim of any spyware application depends on its author; most spyware applications are authored to intercept and/or take complete/partial control of your personal computer, without the user’s knowledge and consent. Most of these spyware applications transfer private and potentially personal information including banking information like, checking account numbers, bank account number, etc. over the internet, to the author.
Typically the term ‘spyware’ implies a software application that stealthily monitors the computer user’s behavior and usage, but there is more to it. The functions of a spyware application are much more extensive and potentially more threatening than just “monitoring the user’s behavior”. Depending upon the type of the spyware application, the software usually collects personal information, it can interfere with the user’s control of the personal computer in many ways, and one such example is a known as a downloader spyware, which downloads other spyware and adware applications on to the user’s PC without his or her consent.
A little spyware history
Spyware – originally meant a hardware, much like what is shown in the Bond movies, that is specifically meant for espionage purposes. The first ever recorded use of the term for software was seen on a Usenet post that was meant as a kind of a slick insult at Microsoft’s business model. The term was, later, in the year 2000 picked by Gregor Freund, founder and then chairman of Zone Labs, in a press release for the companies ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall. Since that time itself – “spyware” has taken its present definition.
Some Spyware Stats
It is estimated, using the studies carried out by AOL and National Cyber Security Alliance, that about 59% of the general online population in the country is infected by some kind of a spyware at any given time. Out of this 59%, over 90% had no idea that their PCs were infected with spyware.
Today Spyware has, preeminently, become a threat to Personal Computers and networks across the world. It has become a legal issue with various bills being passed by the senate.
2) So, what happens if your computer does get infected by spyware applications?
Well, it really depends on the type of spyware infecting your computer and the are plenty of varieties out there which have zillions of sub-species, if you may, that can affect the way you control your computer, transmit your browsing patterns and behavior to advertising agencies, transmit your personal information like passwords and usernames, used by you for chat, email, etc. It can also transmit potentially legal and confidential information like your banking details, including your checking account number, online statements, etc. Some spyware are even authored to bring down networks and some may even format your hard drives.
We will stop here for now.
Part II discusses in-depth: the types of Spyware, symptoms of spyware infections, and the difference between Malware, Adware, Virus and Spyware.
