It is normal to see pop-up ads while surfing the net, right? What a lot of people don’t
realize is that those ads could have made their way onto their computers through
spyware. By the time that you figure out what is behind the ads, the spyware pop-ups
may have gotten so bad that your only choice is to completely reconfigure your
computer and just hope that the pop-ups don’t come back. And, if your only mechanism
to fight against the spyware is hope, the pop-up ads will return.
What is Spyware Exactly?
Spyware is a type of software which gets onto your computer and is generally used to
gather your personal information and then send advertisements to you, normally in the
form of a pop-up ad. Spyware software can also change your computer configuration
as well as many other potentially harmful things. Even though the term spyware may
suggest that the software is simply monitoring action in a secretive way, the purpose of
spyware usually goes well beyond this. The party responsible for creating and
distributing the spyware are often profiting greatly through targeted advertising or selling
off your personal information.
When spyware software is on a computer, it generally is hidden from the user. In 2005,
a study carried out by AOL and the National Cyber-Security Alliance showed that 61%
of user’s computers were infected with spyware. Of all of these users, 92% of them
were not aware that their computers were even infected. 91% of the users claimed that
they had not granted permission for the spyware software to be installed. Since then,
spyware has become increasingly sophisticated and is often impossible to detect on a
user’s computer. Even worse, once detected, some spyware is impossible to remove.
Watch our video for more information
