Every time you log into the World Wide Web from your PC, you expose it to unseen malice. Chances are you are all too familiar with the ads that warn you about the horrible malware that can burrow its way into your hard drive. Malicious programs from hackers in lands far and near can hijack your email account. They can give identity thieves access to your bank account and your credit cards. They can steal your very name. So, it only makes good sense that the first thing you ever do with your new Internet-ready PC is to protect it from the unseen dangers of the net. But what kind of software do you need? Anti-spyware, anti-virus software, or both?
To answer that question, let’s first take a look at what anti-virus and anti-spyware programs protect your PC against. A virus is a small file that can attach itself to your hard drive. Viruses attack your computer surreptitiously from the Internet. When click on their file, or when a “timer” goes off, they launch their attacks. Virus can delete your data. They can edit your registry. Or they can slow everything to a crawl.
Spyware likewise comes in to your computer from the World Wide Web, but is also found in otherwise useful software. Many software designers write spyware code into programs so they can see how you use their product. The idea is to make a better version later, but your permission to them to do this is usually buried in the fine print of your user agreement. The harm spyware does to your PC is not glaringly obvious. What spyware does is to start finding and transmitting data about you and your computer. First thing you know, spam chokes your email inbox. Or you get an unexplained credit charge, maybe just a little one. Or your identity is assumed by a criminal ring and Homeland Security arrests you and sends you off to Guantanamo Bay. The only sure way to know whether your computer is infected by spyware is to run a detection program. But a warning sign is your computer running slow.
So, you ask, what is the important distinction between anti-spyware and anti-virus software? The good news is, most of the time, modern computer protection provides you with both. Updating for both spyware and virus definitions at least every week, your protection software will know the definitions it needs to scan and disinfect your hard drive on a regular basis.
Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs typically integrate into your web browser and email. This function makes sure that malware programs never get into your computer in the first place. Anti-spyware software by itself may perform the same function, but spyware detection programs are usually more focused on deleting files that have infected your computer already. Anti-spyware programs often will stop you from logging on and warn you the pages contain malicious code or have been reported as installing spyware on other computers.
To keep your computer secure and malware-free, your best option is to obtain software that protects you against both problems. Anti-virus software and anti-spyware software in the same package afford you a more complete, robust protection against the ever growing number of malicious programs that threaten your computer from the World Wide Web.
Graham McKenzie is the content Syndication Manager at SpywareRemovalDoc.com the leading Spyware Removal Software provider.
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Thu, Jan 21, 2010
Spyware