I listened to his horror story with a sympathetic ear, but



I felt secure since I carry anti-virus software and a

firewall (both by Norton).

At his suggestion - and to my surprise - I ran a program

called "Spy Sweeper" and found a veritable minefield of

dangerous and harmful programs lurking on my computer.

"Spyware" is software that gets onto your computer and

literally "spies" on your activities.

The spying can range from relatively harmless use of

cookies tracking you across multiple websites... to

extremely dangerous "keystroke loggers" which record

passwords, credit cards, and other personal data. That data

then gets relayed to the person who put the software on

your computer.

Three primary types of spyware exist to complicate your

online life, including:

1. "cookies"

2. "Adware"

3. Malicious programs like "keystroke loggers"

Cookies represent mostly a danger of lost privacy.

In theory, someone could use a "cookie" to track you across

multiple sites, combine that data with several databases,

and figure out a lot more information about you than would

make you comfortable.

"Adware" tracks more than just your movement across sites,

it spies on your installed software and computer habits to

then serve up advertising, modify websites before you see

them, and generally do things without your knowledge with

the intention of trying to get you to buy things.

"Keystroke loggers" and other malicious programs exist for

one purpose: to cause personal mayhem and financial damage.

Spyware gets on your computer in one of several different

ways.

First, it rides along with software you download from the

'Net and install on your system.

Second, they come as email attachments (much like viruses)

and automatically install themselves on your computer when

you open the email message.

Third, hackers find an open port on your computer and use

the "back door" to install basically anything they want.

And fourth, the more malicious types, like keystroke

loggers, can even get installed by someone with direct

physical access to your computer such as an employer,

suspicious spouse, business competitor, or someone who

wants to know exactly what you're doing.

Now, suppose you carry an up-to-date anti-virus program and

a firewall - shouldn't that represent potent protection?

In a word: NO!

I can personally attest that even the most up-to-date anti-

virus programs and firewalls will not (repeat, WILL NOT)

catch all the spyware that can infest your computer.

You need a program that specifically scans your system for

the tens-of-thousands of existing spyware programs along

with the new ones appearing daily.

Check out "Spy Sweeper" from webroot.com - this is the

program I used to discover the spyware on my computer.

One thing I noticed, however, is that this program is a

memory hog, so once I scanned, I turned it off and then

use it 2-3 times a week... not the best strategy, but

I want to give you the "whole" picture.

I also got the following recommendations from numerous

subscribers about 2 programs to specifically help identify

and remove spyware from your system (PC):

1. "Ad Aware" from lavasoft.de

2. "Spybot Search & Destroy" from safer-networking.org

The overwhelmingly recommended firewall suggested by readers

was Zone Alarm Pro from Zone Labs

=> http://www.ebookfire.com/zonealarm.html

The bottom line seems pretty simple (but lengthy) if you

want to protect yourself against this growing threat.

~ Keep your anti-virus program current

~ Install a firewall

~ Carefully screen software before installing it

~ Scan for specifically for spyware weekly

~ Stay current on this growing threat.