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A recent study conducted by AOL in conjunction with the National Security Alliance determined that, in a sample of 354 homes, over 61% of users had spyware loaded on their computers. Another study indicates that 83% of computers are infected with some form of spyware and 89% of affected consumers are unaware that they have spyware installed on their computers. Spyware can be devastating to both your privacy your computer system’s performance. The good new is, security software technology exists that can keep this threat from damaging your computer, sapping your productivity and exposing you to the threat of identity theft.

It can sometimes be difficult to tell if spyware or adware has been installed on your computer. A good rule of thumb is this: if you have not taken steps to actively prevent the installation of spyware on your computer, it’s likely that your system is infected. A few signs that your system is infected with spyware include:

1) Your Web browser opens to a different home page

2) Your system’s desktop has extra icons on it and you have no idea how they got there, or your browser has an extra toolbar on it that you did not install.

3) The “Favorites” list on your Web browser contains web pages that you did not put there.

4) When web browsing you notice an unusual amount of pop-up ads, often unrelated to sites you are viewing

5) Your system takes a lot longer to boot, or operates slower than usual.

It happens like this: while you’re surfing the Web, tiny computer programs are hard at work behind the scenes–gathering information about what you do, who you are, and who your friends are. These programs compile this and other information, and transmit it to a covert host. On the other end, someone takes that information and uses it for the purpose of sending you spam email or delivering pop-up advertisements, or worse, uses it for the purpose of identity theft.

Spyware could be the greatest threat to ever hit the Internet. In its less insideous form it’s called adware, and it’s sent to your computer without you even knowing, usually as a part of some other program or utility. At first you may think that a few ads are a small price to pay for whatever tool you downloaded and installed, but think again. You probably agreed to a license to download that new tool, and that license agreement very likely allows the company that is sending those ads to sell any information that they gather to third parties. And along with that new software that you installed you also installd other software on your PC, software designed to compromise your system, eating up network bandwidth as it transmits data back to the originators. In no time at all you’re killing pop-up windows with alarming frequency, your email inbox is stufed with spam and your system mysteriously crashes more than ever!

Because adware and spyware programs are stand-alone programs, they can be designed to do just about anything on your computer. Not only can they track your browsing habits, they can also be designed to examine the contents of your disk drive, copy files from them and transmit them elsewhere on the network, change system files, change registry settings, steal passwords or even credit card number if they are stored on your system.

Getting rid of spyware can be difficult - since it lands on your system in any of a variety of ways and can affect your system in many different ways. It is highly advisable that you install anti-spyware software, but doing that alone will not provide you with a complete solution. Here are a few things that you can do to keep spyware from compromising your system:

1) Many, but not all spyware programs are identified and classified by anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Fixes are published. Make sure you keep your anti-spyware software up to date.

2) Implement a URL filtering solution. Some spyware programs launch automatically when certain web pages are visited. Porn sites are notorious for containing spyware. A good URL filter will prevent users from accessing web sites that are likely to contain spyware.

3) Beware of email attachments. Spammers send out emails with attachments, attempting to trick you into clicking on them–but when you do, you get spyware.

4) If you use a firewall, disallow certain file types that are likely to be spyware, such as .exe or .vbs files, Java, or ActiveX.

5) Don’t use IM or Peer to Peer sharing programs. If you do, be carefull while doing so. Always know ahead of time what you’re downloading and who it’s from. These types of programs are notorious as conduits for spyware.

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