Spyware/Adware, is "any technology that aids in gathering information about a person without their knowledge. On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties.

Here is a brief breakdown of what some of these newer adware/spyware programs can do once they are installed on your computer:  

• Do a detailed check of your browser history. 

• They install a wide assortment of DLLs and other executables files. 

• They send a continuous data stream to the parent marketing company out from your computer and leave a backdoor open for hackers to either intercept your personal data or enter your computer. 

• They can install other programs directly on to your computer without your knowledge. 

• They can send and receive cookies to other adware/spyware programs and invite them into your computer (even if you have cookies disabled.) 

• They can add Trojan horses into your system. 

• Many of these spyware programs can read, write and delete files and in some instances sometime even reformat your hard drive and they do this while sending a steady stream of information back to the advertising and marketing companies. 

• The majority of these programs once installed can not be deleted from your system by normal methods and leave residual components behind to continue to monitor your behavior and try to reinstall themselves.  

• Many people have noticed a significant decrease in their computers performance after installing spyware infested shareware with no idea of why since they had no idea of the additional software being installed which is using up their system resources and connection bandwidth.

There are some newer monitoring spy programs designed to search for and disable firewalls, thus being able to send data undetected.  These spy programs are often physically installed by spouse or other person with access to your PC.  The spy then disables the firewall and sends back monitoring reports to the intruder.

Unfortunately the surveillance software companies write code into their software to fool the firewall or rather fool you.  How it works is when your firewall senses the spyware attempting to access the internet, the spyware will trick the firewall into thinking it is say... Internet Explorer.. or some such common program.  The firewall will then ask you if you will allow Internet Explorer to access the Internet. When you click yes, it will send the information it has collected off your machine.

You can stop spyware by using the following programs.

Detect, Remove and Block spy software

SpySweeper™ Spy Sweeper is award-winning software that effectively and safely detects and removes spyware from your PC to protect you from identity theft, browser hijackers, hackers, keyloggers and Trojans.

CounterSpy     

CounterSpy received the "PC World Best Buy Award".
Mary Landesman

       Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy, PC World's Best Buy Ratings. CounterSpy proved the most capable of the products we tested, with the highest detection rates, cleanest interface, and fastest scan speeds.  Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy proved the most capable of the bunch, finding and stopping 93 percent of all the running processes created by our 45 test programs. And its $20 price for a year of updates and tech support is a bargain. You also won't be disappointed by Webroot's Spy Sweeper, which was almost as effective as CounterSpy, scans quickly, and is easy to use.

More Information on Counterspy

Block & Suppress Spyware

As a Cnet Editors' Choice Award winner, STOPzilla offers the highest level of Adware / Spyware protection available while intercepting and destroying intrusive Popup advertisements.  With STOPzilla’s real-time protection technology, you will always be protected against the threats of Adware, Spyware and parasites.  Install STOPzilla.  Be secure.         Purchase STOPzilla Now

SpyCop SpyCop is to computer monitoring spy programs as a virus scanner is to viruses.  Once downloaded and installed on your system, SpyCop can be used to scan your entire system for the presence of the 400 + computer monitoring spy programs available.  SpyCop can find spy programs that are not shown in the task list and are not present in the registry.

Purchase SpyCop     

Spycop Corporate - Click Here