What is Spyware?

Web sites that offer free music, weather reports, screen savers, icons and the like are usually fronts for spyware programs from Internet marketing people. When they install the bait software (music, etc.) they also install software of their own on your pc. The benign ones just record the web sites you visit and report back to the marketing people. Others force feed advertisements to you in the form of pop-ups, and some do even worse things. Computers can be rendered useless by an accumulation of spyware. For your home pc's, you get more and worse spyware/malware the further into quasi-legal sites you go. File sharing sites (Kazaa, etc.), gaming sites. IRC chat sites tend to display pop-up's with neat offers that just install malware.

If your home computer is running slow and has an increased number of pop-up ads, your system may be infected with spyware.

What to Do About It

To help prevent infections, always read any popup message carefully before clicking yes or no to close the window as they are often worded deceptively.

There are several free programs available that will find and remove spyware on your system.  Some of the more popular ones include:

• Lavasoft's AdAware
• Spybot Search & Destroy

You should read the instructions of any spyware software carefully before using.  (The above links are provided for information purposes and do not constitute an endorsement from JSRCC.)