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Message from Kevin
This month we're covering spyware, adware, and viruses in our newsletter and on our podcasts. You may have heard some or all of these terms, but this month we're going to try and give you a little bit more information about each of these items as well as how to protect yourself. Trust me when I say it is better to spend a few dollars to protect yourself than to risk losing so much important data if you do get infected. Once infected it can be very difficult to get back to normal. I hope you enjoy this months topic and please take the time to listen to our podcasts. You might find them rather entertaining.
-Kevin Soderlund
Monthly Special
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Newsletter Info
If you would like to
Links
CA Anti-virus is available with a year of free updates at http://my-etrust.com/microsoft/. When you visit their site, you will be asked to register. Once you have completed the registration process, you will be sent an E-Mail with a link to the registration code and download site.
Spysweeper is available from the Webroot website at http://www.webroot.com/ and a free online scan is available here. While Webroot offers the trial version of Spysweeper for free, the full version of the software is about $30.
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Education
Spyware, adware, and viruses are living among us…they are stealth, and blend in completely. They appear in the most common places, and they could even be on your computer!
- Have you looked at your computer’s performance lately and noticed it slowing down?
- Do you get unwanted advertisements on your screen?
- Has your Internet connection quit working or slowed down a lot?
- Have you gotten any suspicious E-mails asking for passwords, personal information or from people you don’t know?
If your computer is experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, then it might be infected with spyware, adware, or viruses!
What is spyware?
Spyware is a program that becomes installed on your computer and keeps track of your Internet habits and keystrokes. It is looking to obtain credit card numbers, passwords, and other personal information.
What is adware?
Adware is often included with free software that you download. It causes advertisements to pop up on your computer screen or be displayed within other programs. If your computer has enough of these advertising annoyances, it can actually slow down your computer.
What are viruses?
Viruses are computer programs that are specifically written to cause havoc on your computer. Viruses have been around for many years and have been known to delete files, corrupt hard drives, slow down computers, and send themselves out to other people in your e-mail address book. Some especially nasty ones can even prevent you from getting your computer started.
What can I do to prevent these attacks on my machine?
Spyware, adware, and viruses are preventable with anti-spyware and anti-virus programs.
Coffee Nets recommends the use of CA Anti-virus (formerly known as EZ Anti-virus) for virus prevention, as well as Spysweeper for the prevention of spyware and adware.
We recommend both of these products because they don’t drastically slow down your computer and they come with software and daily definition updates. Basically, if a new version of their software comes out within the year, you can install the new version without any extra cost.
What do I do if my computer is infected with spyware, adware, or viruses?
If you find that your computer is infected, take the following precautions:
- Disconnect your computer from the Internet. This will prevent the problem from getting far worse. Most spyware adware, and even viruses will constantly try to access the Internet to transmit personal information and data as well as download other spyware, adware, and viruses.
- You can try to run the spyware and virus scanners on your own, but if your system is badly infected your computer may need professional help.
- Call Coffee Nets at (714) 343-1940. Spyware, adware, and viruses can be extremely difficult to remove completely and have a chance of returning to your system, even after you’ve uninstalled them using their uninstall feature.
What about junk E-mail? What does that have to do with spyware, adware, and viruses?
Junk E-mail itself is not a form of spyware, adware, or viruses, but some types of junk E-mail may ask you for personal information, passwords, credit card numbers, direct you to a spoof website, or contain viruses as attachments. Whatever you do, do not submit any information in reply to these E-Mails. These E-mails that try to trick you into giving out personal information are referred to as “phishing.” That is the creator is fishing for your personal data, hoping that you are some other unsuspecting victim will take the bait. When presented with this type of E-Mail, we recommend either deleting it or reporting it to the United States Government by forwarding the E-Mail to spam@uce.gov |
