How to Avoid Getting Spyware from Internet

Many web surfers have given up and just learned to live with spyware. While spyware might not be particularly harmful to your computer it will still eat up your memory over time, requiring you to do frequent reboots. In addition, it may hit you with a barrage of annoying popups, advertising anything from erectile dysfunction products to the latest diet fad. Email is another popular infection route that spyware distributors take advantage of. Many computer users just accept having a malware-infested pc as a cost of doing business on the internet these days. This need not be the case if you follow these simple steps:

• Be cautious with email
• Consider using filtering software
• Use antivirus and antispyware programs
• Make sure your operating system stays updated

What is Spyware?

Spyware is a general term for malware that is installed on a computer by infected pages on the Internet, or comes from software and other packages that was installed on the computer by the user. Incorrectly labeled as viruses, spyware has proliferated over the last 8-10 years (since about 2000) and has caused many computer users to have major headaches, causing computer reformats and file loss. This type of software is what this document is going to concentrate on.

Spyware can come in the form of Ad-ware, Hijackers, tracking cookies (although not all tracking cookies are bad), rogue security software, ransom-ware (an advanced rogue security software), and keyloggers. New types of spyware include rootkits which can be very difficult, if not impossible to remove from a computer system. I will speak more on that later. The primary point of spyware, however, is that it is a piece of software installed on a computer system without the user's consent or knowledge, and is typically very difficult (or seemingly difficult) to remove.