WHO IS CONTROLLING YOUR COMPUTER?
By Jeremy King

I was in my office when the phone rang. It was a man complaining that something was wrong with his computer. I made an appointment to come take a look. While driving to his house I contemplated what his computer must have been like. Since his complaint was that his computer was slow, I imagined it must be a few years old, maybe a dirty old keyboard, and a ball mouse.

When I walked into his house, much to my amazement, there sat a brand new computer. This couldn’t have been the one the man was having problems with. But he assured me it was. After evaluating the computer for just a few minutes, I saw what he was complaining about. Just a simple task, like opening a program, took 3 minutes to load. Pop-ups were coming up every 5 seconds. A computer that should have burned a hole through the desk was ready to freeze into the ice age.

I terminated some of the processes that were taking up a ton of memory, but like a recurring nightmare, they started running again. Each process would wait silently about 10 second and launch again. After running some utilities, visiting a little place called “safe mode” and rebooting, I conquered the beast.

So what was the problem? His computer was infected with “spyware”. Spyware is a growing threat that computer users can no longer ignore.

Spyware by definition is software that takes control of your computer without you knowing it. However, it is not software that is purposely purchased or installed. If you are among the millions that have accidentally downloaded it, you will know what I am talking about.

Have you ever been browsing the internet and seen this cool little weather toolbar designed to tell you the forecast? You would never suspect that piggy-backed with it is spyware and after installing it, your computer’s performance declines, and pop-ups take over. According to Microsoft, “It can bombard you with advertisements you don’t want to see, change your computers settings and even collect personal information to send back out over the web.”

I like how Dan Richman, an online columnist simply states it, “Spyware doesn't destroy anything. It just makes you want to destroy your computer.”

If you think this is a joke, or couldn’t happen to you, consider this. It has been estimated that spam, those annoying junk emails, effects 60% of e-mails, but according to a study done by National Cyber Security Alliance, some 80% of PC’s are infected with spyware. Now get this, according to that same study, 77% of computer users think they are safe from online threats!

Rob Bogart of Mill Creek Washington explained his experience with spyware, "One night, I left my computer online all night, and when I came in the next morning, I had probably 400 pop-up windows"

The government is taking action to try to stop companies that produce spyware.

The House of Representatives has passed a resolution that would allow the Federal Trade Commission to fine intruders as much as $3 million for collecting data about a person without them knowing it, or changing a person’s home page. The bill is currently before the Senate.

Microsoft suggests these 3 steps to avoid downloading spyware. Only download from sites you trust. Read privacy statements and licensing agreements before you download anything; if you don’t understand, don’t download. If you can’t close a pop-up window, never click ok, agree or even cancel. Only close the window using the X in the top right corner.

Be careful of free online help to remove spyware, many times these can be a scam.