The Need for an Adware and Spyware Blocker
There is this one law school student whose thesis is about money laundering so oftentimes she would Google the term to come up with a ready list of online references.
This proved to be useful to her and the entire process of writing her paper. After several months of doing so, she was confronted with problems like being directed to a weird page totally not related to money laundering every time she types the same words.
At first, she thought it was just a glitch in the internet system. Then she rationalized that maybe it is a glitch in the search engine she is using. The persistent occurrence of such a thing however, made her think that someone bugged her.
We all hate people bugging us – but people we can fend of. What this law student is confronted with is a computer bug that she is unaware off.
In the first place is she not a technology savvy person and in the second place she never uses her laptop for any other things than academic research and actual writing of her papers.
The situation above is not an isolated case. There are many people who find themselves caught up in technology problems that are mind boggling but actually can be answered with two words – spyware and adware.
The infamous term of spyware was first coined in 1995 but it was popularized in the year 2000. Spyware is computer software infiltrating a computer unnoticed to be able to access personal information of the user.
This is done by studying logging keystrokes, web browsing history and even scanning a user’s hard drive. Sounds like something we see only in James Bond movies but unfortunately, anyone can be a victim of spyware.
It is safe to use the word victim because no one wants to be monitored on your online activities. Spyware can understandably be used to spy on criminals if such use is beneficial to society, but how about the use of spyware to intercept credit card details and the like?
What ordinary people can do to protect themselves is to block spyware and all other software programs similar to it like adware and malware. This can easily be done by available adware and spyware blocker programs. The role of these blocking programs include to remove or disable existing spyware programs or to avoid the installation of these malicious software programs.
Spyware, adware or malware are not like virus or worms that self replicate. They can however be a hassle for anyone in keeping valuable information secret like banking details or e-mail address.
One of the most common indications that such an infection can be present is the slowness of the computer, which can be annoying.
It can however not be evident, in which case the bad guy can get away. It is best to have a program to detect and prevent these infections. Also, ensure blocking programs, windows security updates and patches are done regularly
