Spyware Can Steal Information, Crash Computer
UPDATED: 5:24 pm EST November 5,
2004
LANCASTER, Pa. -- Spyware slows down your computer and watches what you're doing.You may not see it, but it's in there, lurking inside your computer.
A recent study sanctioned by the U.S. government found spyware on 80 percent of 1,500 computers that were examined."A lot of people don't understand how it's installed, understand how to get rid of it and don't understand what it's doing in the background," said Glenn Groman, with CIMBRIAN.What it's doing is tracking your activity on the Internet and reporting it to advertisers, who could then bombard you with pop-up ads for items related to what you've been looking at on the Web.Spyware is not supposed to be recording your personal, sensitive information, but it can."Passwords, credit card information -- yeah, those programs are called key loggers. Where basically, they're logging your keystrokes, recording that information and sending it off," Groman told Lancaster, Pa., television station WGAL.Of course, if someone gets your personal information and uses it, that's illegal, but the spyware itself is not illegal.Spyware does not force itself onto your computer. In almost all cases you have to open the door and let it in.The most common way to get spyware is to download file-sharing software like screensavers and other free programs off the Internet.Groman showed how the spyware is buried in the fine print, which most users never even read."And by abiding to that end user license agreement, I'm telling them to install those five spyware programs on my computer," Groman said.Reading the fine print may keep the spyware away, but once it's there you'll notice a barrage of pop-up ads, that your homepage repeatedly changes, that new toolbars and icons appear and that your computer runs slowly, with repeated error messages.To get rid of spyware, don't download just any free removal program, because some of them can actually install more spyware on your computer.Ad-Aware is one of several free and reliable anti-spyware programs you can download. Spybotis also well-known and free of charge.Make sure you set the program to scan once a week, because the spyware battle is just beginning."Once these spyware people get a lot more adept at what they're doing, they're going to steal information a lot faster than people can imagine," Groman said.The U.S. House recently passed what's called the Internet Spyware Prevention Act. The proposal passed in the House on Oct. 7 unanimously. The Senate did not get to the bill, meaning it must start over next session. It would have given the Justice Department $10 million to fight spyware. It also would have sentenced people up to five years in prison for secretly launching the software onto computers.Just because you are getting pop-up ads does not mean you necessarily have spyware on your computer. Some Web sites, such as this one, use pop-up ads that place a cookie on your computer. That cookie tells the site not to repeat that pop-up ad for a set period of time.
SPYWARE If you believe spyware has been installed on your computer (one sign is pop-up advertising that is not affiliated with the site you're viewing), software can help you remove it. Ad-aware Spybot-S&D  Survey: Have You Had Spyware? |
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