Someone May Be Watching You, Right In Your Own Computer

By Kaaren Valenta

Most computer users are not aware of the dark side of the Internet.

They know about pop-up ads and spam, and may even be familiar with cookies, that mechanism for storing information about the users on their own computers. But many people still do not know about spyware, programs that sneak into the users system, gathering information and communicating secretly.

During the past few weeks, several computers with more than 500 pieces of adware and spyware attached have come in for repair at Newtown Computer and Financial Services (NCFS).

“Over the past year there has been an increasing amount of spyware and adware on computers,” said Dan Tannenbaum, NCFS owner. “Normally we’d see 80 to 120 pieces on the average. Whenever people download free programs, music, files, and search engine tool bars, they also download extra programs.”

Many of these are harmless tracking cookies that companies use for marketing, he said. Buy a book on Amazon.com and a message will appear, advising, “People who bought this book also bought these books.”

“Companies caught on to this,” Mr Tannenbaum said. “The problem is that adware uses up a lot of resources on your computer. It slows it down. There also are hackers and malicious individuals out there using a type of spyware called malware.”

 In general, adware is advertising and spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put in someone’s computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Malware is malicious spyware.

“Malware will do things like take your browser to another website and lock it into pornography,” Mr Tannenbaum said. In some cases it even will gray out your toolbar. Some malware even comes in and finds personal information on your computer and sends it out for identity theft.”

“A couple of parents thought their children were on adult sites, but that wasn’t why this was happening,” he said. “If a computer has been on the web even once, probably it will have some kind of spyware or adware on it.”

Even the benign collecting of data has potential risks. Although the privacy policy of companies may say that there will be no sensitive or identifying data collected from a computer user’s system, the fact remains that there is still a “live” program sitting on the PC that is sending information about the user and the user’s surfing habits to a remote location.

“A lot of people don’t realize this,” Mr Tannenbaum said.

Since some malware also comes in on software viruses, the first thing that any computer user should do is to purchase an antivirus program and keep it up to date. Some computer owners do not realize that they need to regularly run their antivirus programs, preferably each night, Mr Tannenbaum said. Often they also do not know that they need to renew their original subscription each year.

Not having a good antivirus screen is risky.

“There are over 200 new viruses each month,” Mr Tannenbaum said. “There are over 80,000 viruses now in existence.”

Once a consumer has installed an antivirus program, the next step is to tackle adware and spyware. There are free downloads of programs to remove adware and spyware from a computer, he said.

“We use Ad-aware, which is available at www.download.com. Look under ‘the Internet’ on that site. Ad-aware is very good for general home use. Treat it like an antivirus program — run it every day,” he said.

Mr Tannenbaum said there is also a more tech-oriented program, Spybot Search and Destroy, that also can be downloaded, but because it can make computers crash frequently, he recommends that most computer users not use it. “It’s for techies,” he said.

Free versions of programs generally have one disadvantage: they have to be run manually by the user. There also are many versions that are available to purchase, but Dan Tannenbaum said he is not ready to make any recommendations.

“We really don’t know yet which are best because this is such a young industry. The jury is still out,” he said. “In another six months to a year, there will be evaluations of these products, just like with the antivirus programs.”

To stop annoying pop-up ads, there is a product called Popup Starter, which is available at www.panicware.com.

“You can download a free edition that works pretty well,” Mr Tannenbaum said. “There are also two or three other versions priced from $29.99 to $69.99.”

Because any piece of software can be compromised, the best way to protect your computer is through a piece of hardware called a firewall router that “makes you invisible — prevents you from being seen on the Internet,” he said.

“Anonymity is one of the best defenses on the web,” he explained.

Firewall routers like Lynksys, D-Link, Belkin, Netgear start at around $85 and are available at stores like Circuit City. The routers are installed between the cable modem and the PC.

“It won’t stop popup ads, but it will help stop hackers,” he said.

 Mr Tannenbaum said that when consumers buy computers, they do not see the upkeep that is required.

“It takes a lot of housekeeping to keep a computer running well,” he said. “The lure of a free toolbar, a free game, free music — they have no idea what else it can bring.”