In another post I spoke about a plug-in called Intelligent Explorer. What a nightmare that could be for anyone who’s downloaded it by mistake. Spyware or adware items are constantly infecting computers and laptops. Too many computer don’t have any protection from them. That is one of the biggest mistakes that any computer owner can make.

According to a 2004 survey by AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance, 91% of users questioned were familiar with the term spyware. Only 53% believed their computers were infected, but a scan found that 80% of their PCs had some type of spyware installed on them.” It goes on to say, “…The average number of spyware components per computer was 93 with one computer having well over a thousand.”

According to Butte College the definition for spyware is:
“The term ‘spyware’ is broadly defined as any program that gets into your computer without permission and hides in the background while it makes unwanted changes to your user experience.
Spyware is generally not designed to damage your computer. The damage it does is more a by-product of its main mission, which is to serve you targeted advertisements or make your browser display certain sites or search results.
At present, most spyware targets only the Windows operating system (Internet Explorer).”

Don’t get me wrong when I say that some spyware is harmless. Cookies are quite harmless, yes they infringe on your privacy, but that’s about it. Other than that, the rest can and are dangerous.

I’m sure you’re wondering what is it that you can do to protect your computer. Here are some of the top spyware tools out there to look at.

1) Spybot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software
2) Xoftspy form Pareto Logic
3) Spyware Guard from Javacool Software is a free program
4) Pest Patrol (now part of Computer Associates by acquisition)
5) McAfee Anti-Spyware

Don’t kid yourself by thinking that you don’t need to take spyware seriously, because if you don’t and get infected by something, your only recourse is to lose the information that is on your computer and completely reinstall the operating system.