Spyware includes keyloggers, backdoor Trojans, password stealers, and botnet worms, which cause corporate data theft, financial loss and network damage. Protection from spyware is an integral feature of our integrated security solutions, and is detected in the same way as viruses, Trojans and worms. Spyware Secure uses an extensive spyware definitions database and technically efficient spyware detection process. Settings can be adjusted to run scans as frequently as necessary. Spyware is a common term for files that are installed on your system without your knowledge that allow companies to monitor your Internet activity. What they don’t tell you, however, is how these files can be extremely dangerous to your PC and could cause major problems with your PC.

Spyware agents may be buggy (it’s hard to publicly beta test them!) and may cause unexplained system crashed. Other examples include what may appear as random crashes, responsiveness issues and general feeling that your system is unwell. Spyware may be sent to you within a virus. While spyware and viruses may have similar effects on your computer (such as slowing down your system), they have different purposes. Spyware can be used for collecting information about your computer’s hardware and software configuration, your web surfing and online buying habits, your passwords, your email address and personal information including your name, age and gender. If you are wondering “what’s the big deal?”about spyware, think about this: When you have these elements in your computer, you are very easily traced by these unscrupulous companies that are trying to exploit you.

Spyware can compromise your privacy because your personal information may be gathered and distributed to others. You may become a victim of identity theft or fraud. Spyware is often hidden alongside other programs, and you may unknowingly install spyware when you download a program from the Internet or install software from disks. You usually need a specialized anti-spyware program to remove spyware from your computer.

Spyware blacklist has been heavily updated! Go check it out now. Spyware Nuker XT users can play an important role in staying one step ahead of a new adware and spyware by voluntarily participating in ‘SpyShield’. Users that join SpyShield help identify new threats by submitting anonymous scan results. Spyware devices can be used to track your Internet behavior or can be employed for more threatening activities like recording your keystrokes to obtain passwords or pulling information from your personal files.So what can you do to avoid spyware?

Spyware is like a virus in that it is an unwanted program that runs on your computer. However, it does not try to replicate itself to other machines. Spyware could very well be the root of your problem. Get a free spyware scan right now to see if you are infected.

Spyware can be a very good marketing tool. Companies which produce spyware gain lucrative contracts from many companies for the service they provide. Spyware is largely (though not exclusively) an Internet Explorer problem. And like it or not, Internet Explorer, the Swiss cheese of the Internet, commands about 80 per cent of the world’s browsing. Spyware distributors often rely on security holes, clever cons, opaque “bundling” arrangements and other unsavory practices to spread their unwanted payload. As the threat has grown, so has the need to mount a coordinated defense against these unwanted programs and their adverse effects.

Spyware can cause data corruption and pop-up ads. Worse yet, spyware can also result in personal profiling, spying and even identity theft. Spyware can exist in the form of legal (and acceptable) commercial applications that give network administrators a great deal of power both over what they can affect, and see happening on managed systems.

There are a variety of solutions on offer, ranging from disposable email addresses to getting your own anti spam exchange server. I’ve tried most of them. I don’t think I’ve discovered the anti spam software Grail yet, but I’ve made some important discoveries.

Do you need a Spam Solution?

It’s curious. We accept unsolicited advertising in most areas of life. We didn’t ask for advertising on TV or radio, yet we don’t refer to it as spam. We certainly don’t ask for billboards, as if we need something to stare at on our way to work, and yet we don’t normally complain either, and when we do, it tends to be about content, not about the fact that we didn’t ‘opt in’ to billboard advertising as a medium. Yet when unsolicited advertising comes to us in the form of email, we tend to get very upset and not a little self-righteous. What’s the difference?

I assume the difference is that it’s harder to deal with.

With the TV or radio, we simply change channels. With newspapers and billboards, there’s always something else to look at. Yet when unsolicited emails fill our inbox, we can’t just ignore them and hope they’ll go away. At the very least, we have to delete them. And given that spammers routinely try to make their rubbish look like something we were expecting, we have to spend time sorting the wheat from the chaff. When there are only a handful of tares in the wheat, this is manageable. But the longer you stay online, the larger that handful becomes.

Three types of Anti Spam Solutions

1. Prevention is better than cure

Perhaps the most obvious solution is to avoid getting on the spammers’ mailing list in the first place. Some people suggest that if you follow a few basic rules and never give out your email address to companies that you don’t know, you will never end up on spam lists.

Unfortunately this only works up to a point. I’ve found over the years that I get plenty of spam to addresses that I never give out. How do the spammers get me? They generate random addresses until they find me!

The spammers pick major players – AOL, Hotmail, etc. – and send out a million emails to dave000@aol.com, dave002@aol.com, dave003@aol.com, etc. From a million, perhaps only a thousand emails don’t bounce back, but that means they’ve found 1000 real people, and they’ll now keep those addresses, mail to them again, and sell the addresses to other spammers!

Bottom line: you can’t avoid the spammers forever.

Of course, you can keep changing email addresses and so keep one step ahead of the spammers. Disposable email addresses are not hard to find nowadays. The problem here though is that you end up wasting more time than you save. Keeping all your contacts up to date with your ever-changing email address is likely to consume far more time than a daily clean-out of your inbox?

2. Anti Spam Inbox Filters

The second type of spam appliances are those that sort through the email that is in your inbox and throw it out before you get to it.

These programs generally require both an initial anti spam software purchase and an ongoing subscription, as file definitions continually need to be updated.

This type of solution is superior to thinking that you can avoid being spammed. It is not ideal though. Three reasons:

It can be quite expensive.

The spam is still downloaded to your inbox. This can take up a lot of time if you’re receiving between two and three hundred spams per day (as I do).

It is never 100% accurate. The technology of offensive weaponry always stays ahead of defensive weaponry. Hence spammers will most likely always be a step ahead of those who are trying to keep them out. Some spam will get through, and even more importantly, some emails you wanted to receive will be mistakenly weeded out as spam!
Now admittedly, with this last problem, most inbox-based anti spam solutions do allow you to review the emails that they’ve flagged as spam before you delete them, but this takes you back to the task of sorting through all your emails, and the whole idea of your anti spam appliance is that it’s supposed to free you up from doing this!

3. Server-based Anti Spam Solutions

In my opinion, server-based Anti Spam solutions are the way to go.

Most commonly, this solution just invokes filters, similar to those used in the inbox-based anti spam solutions. But the difference is that you don’t have to waste time waiting for the rubbish to download nor do you spend time installing updated filter definitions every week.

Another type of server-based anti spam filter is that used by Spam Arrest, who are my Anti Spam Appliance of choice.

What makes Spam Arrest different is that they don’t actually filter anybody out. They just bounce back an email to the sender, asking them if they will identify themselves as a real human being.

The system works on the assumption that most spammers are not personally sending and receiving their emails, but have mindless machines that do it for them. So when some machine sends you an email automatically, it will reside in the ‘unverified’ box on your server until you decide to either verify it or let the system delete it after a few months.

Spam Arrest is not the only company that takes this approach. There may be better systems out there by now? Look around for yourself. Check out the various options. I can’t tell you with certainty which software anti spam solution is the best one for you, but I’d encourage you to be clear about one thing. The problem with spam is that it wastes time. Beware of spam solutions that waste as much time as they save!

Rev. David B. Smith (the ‘Fighting Father’)

Parish priest, community worker, martial arts master, pro boxer, father, author, Internet Marketer http://www.marketingwithintegrity.org

Get a free preview copy of Dave’s book, Sex, the Ring & the Eucharist when you sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.fatherdave.org

Author: David B. Smith
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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