Point ‘N Click Technology’s Online Tech Lab
From the "Pen of a Ready Writer"
Mary Jones
Let me welcome those of you who are new to Point ‘N Click Technology’s Online Tech Lab. It is good to have you and for you to join us. For those of you who are new let me give you some background information. The Online Tech Lab has been at this address since the June 24th of this year and it has been wonderful. Those that attend have been getting some good information and I have enjoyed the company of everyone, thoroughly, through the work.
Everything here is kept simple and is applicable for your every day computing. One of my students has an acronym for keeping it simple, but I’ll move on. In short I like to say and/or bring everything down to its lowest common denominator – “Point ‘N Click” and it is done. I don’t want these sessions to be a lecture, but I invite you to comment, ask questions, or even request instruction on something specific. I do claim to be good and the best at what I do, but, I do not claim to know it all. Today’s lesson will show that. If there is something that I do not know, I do know how to find out.
Well, shall we continue? Today I want to provide some information about spyware. Spyware is something that you cannot avoid and should not ignore. I’ll tell you my first and last encounter with spyware in a minute. Spyware is a form of malware, which is a term (malware) that is used to describe malicious software. Malware consist of spyware and adware programs. These programs track cookies, monitor where you surf, redirect your URL and more. Adware is a nuisance, as well as malicious, because it will bring unwanted advertisement and even change your tool bar and add junk like an adult bar. Spyware and adware will even infect your computer with worms, Trojan horses, and viruses. They can be nasty.
Now let me tell you of my first and last encounter with spyware and adware. According to Wikipedia since 2006, spyware and adware has been a security threat to every Microsoft Operating System through the browser Internet Explorer. Several years ago during the winter months somewhere around Thanksgiving I was working on a project for a client. This project was very important, as with all my clients, and it was time sensitive. I noticed that my computer was running slower and slower. I kept getting an annoying message that I have spyware on my computer. I was not really familiar with this term and said that I would check it out later. I was well into this project and did not want to get pulled into being the PC Doctor at that time. Days had gone by and this message kept coming up and I did not take the time or I felt that I did not have the time to deal with it right then. I had antivirus running and I felt I was okay. I am pretty tech savvy with software and hardware and kept up-to-date with the latest software for what I needed and could repair whatever was wrong with my computer (hardware). But I kept ignoring the message that popped up every time I was on the computer.
Well it boiled down to my having to tackle that bugger. It was 8:00 p.m., right before the holiday, and snowing hard, and my computer was running so slow it was almost at a standstill. I was petrified because of all the work I had done for the client, the other work and software that was on my computer. I could not afford for it go out like that. And trust me, it was going down. All I could think to do was go to Best Buys. I got there before they closed and talked with someone and they directed me to their software section. The software suggestion was Webroot Spy Sweeper. This was only after looking at all the software for this on the shelf and reading every package. I got home in the blizzard and installed the software. You know that was grueling to install software on a slow running computer. It took 3 days before my system was clean. I had to keep sweeping it until it showed 0 spyware. Do you know I had thousands of spyware on my computer. Well I know I do not need to tell you the moral of this story. Most anti-virus applications now have anti-spyware. But note, that Webroot Spy Sweeper is considered number 3 and PCTools is number one. I forgot where I read that, but I do swear by Webroot. I still use it when doing maintenance on client’s computers. Beware of Spyware.
Definition - URL - Uniform Resource Locator
This was formerly known as a Universal Resource Locator or URL. This is a dressy name for a website address.
Reverend Mary A. Jones
www.facebook.com/MAJones.writer
MAJones777@gmail.com
