Virus or Spyware - What's the Difference?

By:Dave Fraser

This month's article is one of the things I still find comes up
as a frequent question, "what's the difference between Viruses
and Spyware"? I will try and clarify that here. One of the
biggest slowdowns of a PC is caused by viruses, adware or
spyware as it's often called. Before you can benefit from any
other optimisation tips or improvements you really need a system
relatively free from those pests.

A virus is a piece of malicious software code written to cause
some kind of damage to a computer system or network or even the
Internet itself. Viruses spread, similar to their biological
namesake, from one machine to another and can spread havoc
wherever they go. They are most commonly spread by sharing files
with others or through email attachments where they can be set
up to send themselves to all the addresses in your email address
book.

Adware is usually dowloaded and installed along with some other
program without your knowledge and unlike a virus doesn't spread
by itself. Very often you click "OK" without reading the terms
and conditions and by doing so you agree to have the files
installed. An example is you see a "free" program on offer that
you think might be useful and download it without thinking. Even
some anti-spyware programs install adware and the website earns
money from the ads that are clicked on.

The catch is that the extra files introduced are used to
determine things like your surfing habits and the data is used
to serve up popup ads or redirect your browser to a page other
than the one you wanted. Some of the programs can be used to
install keyloggers which can send back information about
passwords and bank details etc. Adware is not a security problem
it is more an annoyance especially when you have ten different
programs trying show ads. The amount of computer resources it
uses up slows your system to a crawl.

Spyware is more malicious and evil intentioned and is designed
to steal something from you. It can be downloaded by visiting
the wrong types of websites or along with other files the same
way as adware. Spyware can often be hard to remove as it can
continually recreate itself and hide somewhere on your hard
drive.

Programs such as trojans can be used to allow access to hackers
at a later date. From the story of the Trojan horse where the
Greeks hid inside the wooden horse left as a peace offering and
were wheeled in to the fort by the Trojans themselves. Then at
night the Greeks crept out of the horse and opened the gates and
let the enemy in. Trojans and adware unlike viruses don't spread
themselves.

It is wise to run more than one spyware checker as no one system
gets rid of them all. You can never be certain you have every
one removed because new ones may not have been discovered and
the Spyware program doesn't recognise it yet. I use the two free
ones "Spybot" and "Adaware" and I also use
http://www.pcsandthings.com/CounterSpy.htm which comes from a
reputable company that specialises in removing spyware.

Sometimes people say to me "doesn't my anti-virus software
remove spyware"? Well the answer is most don't and even if it
does I always find a specialist product works best. Beware also
of bogus spyware scanners available on-line which actually
install their own spyware once they have removed their
competitors. Sometimes you run a free scan and it finds all
sorts of nasties but you will have to sign up and pay to remove
them. I have even seen it that they find things that don't exist
or try to frighten people into believing they have lots of
spyware when all they have are advertising cookies.

Cookies are small text files that websites leave on your system
so that when you return they can customise the page that loads
or they can count you as a returning visitor. They are harmless
and most of them are useful. They can be easily removed by
deleting them in your browser settings.

So you need to be running a suitable and up to date antivirus
program and one or more Spyware checkers.

More tips can be gotten from my website at
http://www.pcsandthings.com

About the author:
Dave tries to make your computing experience a bit less
stressful and helps you to speed up your computer
with free tips at www.pcsandthings.com