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Are you getting sleazy popup ads that refuse to go away even when your web browser is closed? Found some new icons or shortcuts on your desktop? Web browser keeps loading the same page over and over again even when you have set your default start page? Finding your PC slowing down all of a sudden, even when you have no programs running?

Congratulations! Your PC is infected with Spyware or even worse, SpywareS (yes you can have more than one at a time). But what IS Spyware and why is it called that? Well because in technical terms, that’s what it does. It is a program that uses a live internet connection to pass information between your computer and an internet ad-server. The server sends advertisements to your computer, and according to these companies, your computer collects information about which ads you’ve seen and which ads you’ve clicked and then sends that to the server. This is all done in the background, without you interacting with the program in anyway.

I much prefer the definition provied by Information Week:

“Software that’s installed without your informed consent. Spyware communicates personal, confidential information about you to an attacker. The information might be reports on your Web-surfing habits, or the software might be looking for even more sinister information, such as sniffing out your credit card numbers and reporting those numbers.”

Where does it come from? Well, where do you think? From the Internet of course. You come across a website with an advert that catches your eye and more often than enough you click on it unintentionally (the advert has a habit of popping up just as you are about to click on a different link). Depending on the security settings on your web browser, you may then have allowed a small program to be installed on your PC, without even you being aware of it. Note that this is just one of the many ways that spyware could get into your system. It could also come from software that you downloaded over the Internet. Divx.com used to include Gator (a type of Spyware) with free versions of their popular Divx package. Most people would ignore the fine print and install the software without knowing what they have done.

What can be done about this? Well, since Spyware is relatively new, people commonly assume that they are safe with just an anti-virus software. I can assure you that if you have a PC, you definitely need an anti-spyware package, especially in this broadband day and age.

Today there are many anti-spyware software available at your disposal. Even anti-virus developers like McAfee and Norton have their own anti-spyware packages. I however, have always preferred Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware SE Personal and Spybot S&D. Other ways of Spyware prevention include switching to an alternative web browser such as Opera or the more popular Firefox, which is now at version 1.5.

Mac and Linux systems are immune to Spyware at present.