You need anti spyware, adware and virus software. Period. Unless of course you don’t use the Internet, but you’re here, so you do.
Your privacy, personal information such as credit card numbers and social security number, the websites that you visited, email and instant message conversations — all up for grabs. If you’re not tech savy, that information is easy to get. Your identity can be stolen quite easily. The question is, when? You have to protect yourself.
I know that most people will say, “I already use anti-this or that software”. Well, most people have some type of protection, but I would place a bet that one-third of that software on every computer on the Internet is spyware itself. You say, “What?”. Yes, keep reading, it’s for your own good.
Plenty of websites on the Internet advertise and subject you to annoying popups, many of which claim that you are infected with something and “It’s ok, cause we have the solution, just click here.”. Websites do not know that you are infected, nor do those making that claim have the solution. Don’t even say no, just exit the window. It may as well say, “Please infect me with the Ebola virus”.
If you have ever seen these messages you need to check the applications that are installed on your computer. You may need to remove malicious software that you unknowingly installed or were tricked into installing. You should check regardless of whether you think you’re safe right now.
To see what applications are installed, select the Start button on your Taskbar and select Run. Type “appwiz.cpl” and press Enter. The Add or Remove Programs dialog box will appear and list the installed applications on your computer.
Now, you need to see if any of these applications are “rogue applications” (it’s a term that means naughty application). Visit this site and if any of the applications on your computer are listed, uninstall them.
What next? Let’s install some applications that are legit and free. These are free and work great.
Still, remember, just because software is free doesn’t mean it is good. Don’t ever install an application that was not created by and downloaded from a trusted source. If you aren’t sure, ask a professional. Your neighbor or friend is not a professional, so don’t rely on his or her opinion.
Free Legit Anti-Spyware and Anti-Adware:
Lavasoft Ad-Aware [About] [Download]
Spybot Search and Destroy [About] [Download]
Use a search engine such as Google or Yahoo and search for information about software before you use it. You will easily find reviews, forums discussing the software and reputable sites such as CNet with information about a product. You might also stumble on some websites trying to sell a “competing” product that is one of those rogue applications, but use common sense.
If you’re curious how the pay-to-use software ranks up, here are two top ten lists.
Anti-Spyware Software Review 2007
Anti-Virus Software Review 2007
Once you install any anti-spyware or antivirus application, they must be updated regularly or they become useless. New malicious software appear every day, so your prevention software needs to be updated with the newest prevention methods to be able to remove the bad stuff and safeguard your computer from getting it in the first place. Once you update the software, perform a scan of your computer to make sure you haven’t been infected lately with newer viruses or spyware. If you decide to buy the software, most require you to pay a subscription fee to receive updates.
You must also keep Microsoft Windows up to date. To do so, visit http://update.microsoft.com/ and download all the security and critical updates.
Software is like swiss cheese. New security holes appear daily. Update your software. The most important software you can update is your operating system (most likely Windows). Second most important is your anti spyware and anti-adware applications. Third is anti-virus application.
Use more than one anti-spyware and anti-adware application. Update and scan with both periodically.
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