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Is someone browsing through your computer? Or using your Internet connection bandwidth by using your computer to send spam or steal your personal and financial information?

If you have downloaded some file swapping software, or username/password manager programs, or animated cursors, or file download manager programs, or desktop “search” or “tool” bars, then you are probably being tracked by some “spyware” or “adware” or “keystroke logger”, often grouped under the term “malware”.

“Ok”, you ask. “What is malware?” Keep reading and all will be revealed.

Malware is a program that you downloaded from the Internet (or received as an E-mail attachment) and installed on your hard drive, but usually you didn’t know you were getting it. Malware often tracks your web surfing, and “phones home” with the results. You end up receiving customized advertising based on the web sites you’ve visited and the ads or banners you’ve clicked on. Worse, some malware will record your keystrokes when you are on a secure site (like a bank or online store), then send your user name, password, and account information back to “home”.

If you don't want malware on your computer, it's up to you to either keep it off, or get rid of it.. Here’s how...

• Read the entire license agreement before you download software. Yes, this is often difficult reading, but legitimate software will tell you if it includes “additional” software.
   
• Install a software firewall. Most software firewalls will not let a program “phone home” over your Internet connection without your permission. A hardware firewall only keeps Internet intruders from getting into your computer, but passes things coming from your computer that are going to the Internet. ZoneAlarm is a good, and free, software firewall. The Windows XP or VISTA firewall is not a good firewall as it does not prevent a program in your computer from connecting to the Internet, and it does not tell you that a program has connected.
   
• Use at least one malware removal program, run it at least every week, and update it before you run it. I use 4 removers (in addition to an antivirus program); each one seems to catch stuff that one or more of the the others missed - Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, System Mechanic, and Microsoft’s (formerly GIANT Software’s) Windows Defender.

I don't like a program controlled by someone else, taking up space on my hard drive, using my Internet connection, taking processing time away from the rest of my computer, and locking up or crashing my other programs or computer.
 

Revised: March 22, 2007

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