Liar, Liar?Watch out for rogue software posing as anti-spyware

Liar, Liar?Watch out for rogue software posing as anti-spyware
Ever been tricked by one of those pop-up windows that says
your system is infected and you should download this ?cure'
right now? I have, and I should know better. But, I was in
the middle of several tasks at once, I looked over and saw
this warning window. Now this window looked similar to a
window I have seen many times.

Without thinking I clicked the ?OK' button thinking this
was a message from the security system. I knew when I
clicked it I had made a mistake. My eye caught the web
address the page was going to, and it wasn't what it said
in the link. Now fortunately our "Pest Patrol" got it and I
was ok. But the point is that one rogue program got by me.

The larger portion of issues causing connectivity or
performance problems revolve around spyware or the products
to remove them. And most of the spyware we receive is
actually legal. The user agrees to install it when they
agree to install another product like a search bar or email
links.

The big spreaders here are Yahoo, Google, MSN, AOL but
there are many others. These come in the guise of weather,
news, RSS feeds, stock tickers you name it. They gather
information on the sites you visit and send the user data
back to the companies. Always be mindful of what you allow
to download. Always watch what you install. Look for
checked boxes, read the license. Make sure you only get
what you originally wanted. These components compete for
the online connection and the result is, of course,
connection issues.

The spyware that got me above was fed to me by the web site
I just went to. The browser window was re-directed to
another window that looked like a warning screen. This is
another favorite method to get spyware on your system.
Pretend to be a product that removes it; wolf in sheepskin
also known as Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Software.

Check out the website Spyware Warrior that lists many
suspect websites and programs. They have a long list of
names: Adware Agent , SafeWebSurfer, Spy-Block for example.
Many of the names are designed to confuse them with
legitimate software like Ad-Aware. The only real protection
here is to use common sense and some healthy fear. If you
didn't order it or are not sure of it, then don't use it!

The last performance killer is the spyware suites
themselves. The newer ones are so large they kill
performance on older machines or machines with modest
resources. Also if one spyware scanner is good then two are
better ... right? Wrong. If they are both running in the
background and using system resources they can slow the
system to a crawl.

The best thing to do is find one good program to scan
automatically and use another one to scan manually. The one
we use and recommend to run in the background is called
Pest Patrol . Then we scan manually with the Ad-Aware
scanner, which offers a great free program for personal
use. Just make sure you update your anti-spyware programs
and scan regularly.

Finally, always watch what you download and install and
always beware and look closely when something pops up on
your screen ... it may not be what it seems.

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Chris Kaminski has been working in computer repair and web
development for the last 20 years. Kaminski is CEO and head
technician for Computerguyslive.com, an online computer
repair company based in Asheville, NC. Visit Computer Guys
Live online at http://www.computerguyslive.com for computer
repair and check out the invaluable Wireless Connection
Guide at
http://computerguyslive.com/content/wireless/wirelessindex.a
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