SpyBot - You are being watched.

Computer viruses can make the news when they infect some some big corporation but we hear little about them in the mean time. A computer that is running anit-virus software as well as a firewall rarely has a problems with viruses as they are stopped before they can enter your pc as long as they are kept up to date.

There are two other computer nasties that causes more problems for pc users than probably any other and that is Spyware and Adware. These are usually grouped under the heading of Malware or Scumware.

A great many computer problems are blamed on the software or the computer hardware but turn out to be Scumware.

Adware usually sends advertising in many forms including popups and popunders and can be very annoying but are generally harmless and only create a nuisance, but they are a form of spyware.

Spyware on the other hand can be very dangerous. It is installed without the knowledge or consent of the pc user and can be downloaded piggybacking onto free games and utility programs.

One of the biggest installers of spyware is 'smilies' sites where you get those little yellow faces for free. But they are also installed from many other downloads and p2p file sharing software like limewire.
Some even masquerade as security software and call themselves anti-spyware but all you are downloading is spyware. It's very important to download and use only reputable anti-spyware programs as well as reputable anti-virus programs.
Norton contains spyware and when installing their suite it will ask you to remove Spybot Search & Destroy first as spybot detects the spyware it contains. Of course Norton do not tell you the reason it wants you to remove Spybot, nor that it contains spyware.

Probably the most respected and certainly one of the best anti-spyware programs you can get is actually free and is call Spybot Search & Destroy. It is recommended by major manufacturers and even Microsoft so really is a must have.

Just a few of the things they can do as well as slow your pc immensely is:
Stealing your passwords.
Stealing your credit or debit card details.
Watching every site you visit and sending the details back so they can bombard you with advertising.
Use massive amounts of your chip power so slowing you down.
Steal your bandwidth so making the internet slow.
Install dialers (for those on dial up internet) and redirect the dial up to your ISP through an international or premium rate number.


A search on google for 'spybot' will bring up very similar sounding names, so I have included a link at the bottom for you to click.

Spybots are increasing daily by the hundreds and at the time of writing this, spybot search and destroy can wipe out in excess of 78,000, so you will see that it is not a small problem.

Many of the problems associated with window is in fact spybots and not the fault of windows at all. Users have even bought new computers thinking that the slowdown is because their pc is old or broken.

Anti-spyware programs are as important as anti-virus and firewalls, and should be installed on all computers connecting to the internet.

There are other anti-spyware programs available but non is as respected as Spybot Search & Destroy, it has set the standard which all antispyware programs must conform to.

The home of Spybot-S&D!

They also have a forum at

Safer Networking Forums

I hope this is of some use to those not protected and you will head the warning.