Spyware
Is it a virus?
No, anti-virus software doesn’t detect it. Is it illegal? Not in
Cyberspace. Is it a violation of privacy? Yes, yes, yes. Who asked for
my permission?
There are several excellent programs for removing these invaders.
Ad-Aware
and Pest Patrol
detect and delete Pests. Pests
are more aggressive invaders. They are loaded on your machine when you
get “free” software for downloading music, gaming on-line, or even
monitoring the current weather.
Pests can hijack your machine. They can change the home page for your
Internet browser to their web site and add buttons to your
Internet Explorer tool bar.
The worst
pests allow a hacker to control your computer. In affect, your PC will
be used as server for emailing and attacking other computers on the
Internet.
When a PC has too many pests, it slows down to the point where normal
functions are impossible.
