Watch out for Spyware

In the past few months I have found so many clients machines to infected with spyware and other viruses. In the old days spyware was fairly easy to remove, a program such as Adaware usually sorted it. However the latest variants such as Smitfruad and Virtumonde/Vondu are getting much harder to shift. These are very nasty they bolt into your Windows operating system, you may find your desktop has been hijacked with lots of fake viruses messages.

I will help people to recognise that they have spyware but more importantly never get it in the first place.

How to recognise the symptoms:-

• Your computer will probably start to run slower although there are many causes of this.


• You might see some fake viruses or a new message appearing every time you boot your computer up informing you have lots of viruses and you need to pay to purchase the full software – this is basically a fraud scam.


• You get unexplained re-direct, for example you might type in google into the address bar but the page is then redirect to a pornography site.

The above are just some symptoms there best way to sure is to run a program as such Spybot Search and Destroy and carry out a full scan in safe mode.

How to avoid spyware

Most people get spyware because they lack the knowledge to avoid it. Never click on any popups that claim to speed up your computer or tune it while you’re on the internet. Make sure you update your Java client and that your browser is up to date. I personally recommend that you use Firefox.

Make sure you have a decent anti virus package, I find many people that get spyware have Norton installed and think they are protected these packages should at least scan your outlook email messages and warn you if they contain viruses. At the very least run a virus scan once a week. I recommend AVG Free Edition if you’re not running a business, it is free and actually more effective than Norton at removing and detecting viruses.

Avoid using peer to peer programs such as Limewire, most the content you find on these are illegal due to copyright reasons and many of things you download contain viruses and spyware.

Make sure your have a hardware firewall, most wireless routers have these built in but if you’re still using a modem without a router function at the very least install Zone Alarm firewall.