Protecting Your Computer from Adware and Spyware

By: Amanda Huber

Recently, while checking our company web site statistics, we
noticed a number of referrals from gambling and pornography
sites. Since we are certain these types of sites would not house
links to us, we investigated further and determined that some of
our faithful visitors may be the victims of adware or spyware.

What is adware?

Adware, in it's most sinister incarnation, is a program that
runs on your computer (like a virus) and occassionally pops up
ads or redirects your browser to websites you had not chosen to
visit.

What is spyware?

Spyware is software that collects personal information from you
without your knowledge or permission. The information spyware
collects can range from all the web sites you visit to sensitive
information including user names and passwords.

How can I make sure I don't get these on my computer?

* Never download programs or files from a website you don't know
and trust. * Never open email attachments unless you know what
they are. If you receive an email from a friend, but the text is
strange and you don't know what the attachment is do not open
it. Write to your friend and make sure they sent the email. *
Keep an antivirus program running on your computer at all times.
You may also want to download Microsoft's Spyware program which
can be found free here: http://www.microsoft.com/ More
comprehensive articles on adware and spyware may be found here:

http://cexx.org/problem.htm
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/malware.ars?72460
http://www.adware.info/



About the author:
An authority on integrated web databases, Amanda Huber is
co-owner of Vulcan Creative Labs, LLC (www.vulcancreative.com)
and DeadFred.com, an online genealogy photo archive. She
occasionally contributes articles for Dead Fred's e-newsletter
Relatively Speaking which help genealogy researchers with more
technical aspects of their online tasks.