Spyware - Introduction, symptoms, prevention and removal

Introduction

Spyware is the term associated with software that is designed to illegally obtain your personal and/or financial information. This information is recorded secretly through a variety of methods, often by recording the keystrokes from the keyboard. Spyware can also record the websites you visit, your financial information from online forms and copy personal documents.

Spyware software generally would then send this information over the Internet to it's creator, for their use in tracking computer users, or potentially for identity or financial fraud.

Symptoms

If you have reason to believe that your computer may be infected with spyware, there are several give-aways:

Popups appearing when computer not in use
Hard drive activity when not in use
Shortcuts appearing for software you don't recognise

These symptoms can also be caused by other malicious software and viruses .

Prevention

By taking several precautions, spyware infection will generally be minimal.

Run anti-spyware software
Avoid bad Internet neighbourhoods
Use an effective email spam filter & follow our spam guidelines .
Don't open anything from anyone you don't know.

Due to a massive increase in spyware over the last few years, many anti-virus vendors also sell versions of their software generally referred to as 'Internet Security' suites. These are a good option, as they would generally include anti-virus, an email spam filter and anti-spyware. Even with this software installed though, you should never consider yourself completely protected.

As well as running active anti-spyware software, try to run a manual spyware check once a week or so. A free spyware checking program called Spybot Search and Destroy is available, updated regularly. The latest version of Microsoft Windows Vista includes some Microsoft software designed to detect and prevent spyware infection, but should not be used alone.

Removal

In most spyware infection cases, anti-spyware software should prevent infection, or at least remove any traces of infection. If it cannot be removed it may be best to contact a computer support specialist such as myself, bearinig in mind that the situation may get worse should it be left untreated.