Beyond Origins the Discussion

Certain Spyware Problems

September 11th, 2008

If you have recently been experiencing difficulties on your computer, then this article has some important news for you. Often, this performance degradation is caused by spyware. I’m going to be discussing the specific effects spyware can have on your system - how it can ruin your computer’s performance, how it can open up the door to further infection, and what vulnerabilities in your computer make this possible. By the time you have finished this article, you will have a good idea of the risks posed by spyware and what to do about them!

When your computer becomes infected by spyware, one of the first signs that you will notice is degraded performance. For many users, this can mean that the computer has become much slower, leading them to believe that it is time to upgrade to a new computer. This is caused by the spyware tying up the system resources - the disk, CPU and network access are often tied up by the resource hungry spyware, leaving little left over for the user’s programs to use. This makes your computer run like treacle uphill!

Another problem is that the Internet connection can become disrupted - you may find yourself being disconnected from the Internet, or have lots of “time out” errors. You may even find that you cannot connect to the Internet at all. This is happening because the spyware is interfering with the network software that all the other programs on your computer rely upon. It can even copy its own code into the network software to protect against Spyware removing.

Another major problem caused by spyware is system instability. This usually manifests itself with the computer crashing. This happens because the spyware does not respect the boundaries that programs are usually supposed to have. So when a flaw in the spyware software’s programming causes the spyware program to crash, it takes other programs, and even the entire operating system, down with it. This is a massive problem when you consider how you can lose work that you did not save.

But if these problems were annoying, the other threats posed by spyware are positively scary.

There are more and more reports coming in of spyware that not only infects your computer - it disables your security software to prevent itself from being discovered and to open the door to further infection! The spyware can disable your firewalls, making it impossible to detect the hidden traffic caused by the spyware reporting back home. It can shut down your anti virus software. It can even advertise your computer’s weakened state to hostile crackers all over the Internet.

All of these effects leave your computer open to infection and can ultimately lead to your computer becoming infected with so much malware that it is impossible to keep it running! This is why software like a spyware bot is so popular!

So, how does this spyware get onto your computer in the first place? What weaknesse opern the door to this infection? While there are several different paths to infection, the majority of them rely upon weaknesses in one central piece of software. This software is known as Windows. Windows has several different features that open it to infection. The first is Internet explorer. IE is a weakspot due to the way it integrates so closely into the windows operating system, and also becuase of the insecure ways it deals with ActiveX controls. These are additional pieces of software that can add functionality to your web browser and to windows.

For instance, every time you watch an online video, it is running inside an activeX control. This is an example of a non-malicious use of the ActiveX mechanism.

However, spyware and other malware can use the ActiveX mechanism to infect a computer, by embedding itself into a web page. When the user visits the web page, they are prompted to install the activeX control. Most users will simply click on “OK”, ignoring (or simply unaware of) the risks involved. in other cases, javascript on the page forces the spyware to be installed.

The same risks are also present in Outlook Express, Windows’ built in email client. This uses Internet Explorer to display the email message, and can be infected in the same way.

Finally, there are the risks posed by the setup of Windows itself. By default, the computer user is a fully authorised system administrator. These means that the user can configure any setting on the computer. However, this also means that any program that the user runs can do the same. So, when the spyware is run, it can easily take control of the computer and change all of the most secure settings with ease.

As you can see, in its standards configuration, windows is quite insecure.

So, with all these different threats, I’m sure you will agree that there is a real need to protect yourself against the spyware that is out there. We’ve seen how spyware can harm your computer’s performance, reduce its security settings, and what weaknesses in your system make it possible to get infected with spyware to start with. Luckily, there sis special anti-spyware software that you can install to clean up your computer and prevent infections in the future. It is aware of these weaknesses and is able to patch them up and prevent infection. To find out more, you should read up on a Spyware software reviews.

Entry Filed under: Internet & Busines Online