Are you Infected with Spywares - Find out Now

I have received  a mail from a friend about this Nice plugin called BDsearch Plugin for internet explorer. I immediately downloaded and installed it as the mail came from a trusted source, but after that my system started running very slow and then a Google search about the plugin reveals that is is an spyware.

I removed it but still it leaves behind some trails which makes my system vulnerable. These kind of Spyware or adware are very common and infecting your computer with your knowledge because you don’t know about the software is a Spyware or not.  Most of computer users do install Antivirus but they are not protected against such Spywares, as they do not install any protection for these.

Another fact according to a survey security agencies found that more than 90% of people know what a spyware is and only half of them believe that they might be infected. Where as when we scanned the computer more than 80% computer were found infected with some sort of spywares.  SO What is spyware and how to deal with them ??

What is Spyware?

There are several Spyware definitions available out there, but I find following of them very appropriate -

1. A computer software that obtains information from a user’s computer without the user’s knowledge or consent (source — http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
2. A Software that collects information about a person or organization without their knowledge or informed consent and reports such data back to a third party.  (Source https://www.key.com/html/A-11.2.1.html )
3. Installs and gathers information from a computer without permission, and reports the information to the creator of the software or to one or more third parties. It provides the consumer with little or no control over removing the software.  (source — ths.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/comphelp/2005011632014938.html )

Spywares are designed in a manner that it will not damage or harm your computer in any means, rather their mission is usually different and targeted over you. They are designed to steal your personal information and benefit form that in several ways.  Some very high severity spywares even steal your password and then used to hijack you email/bank account and others are targeted to show you some ads or some other websites when you browsing the net and gain profit that way.

Most of Spywares are designed for Windows OS and can affect only Windows based system. Most of the spywares are very low at risk or harmless like cookies. These kind of spywares are not doing anything while sitting in your computer but they are against your privacy rights.

How to get rid of Spywares ?

We don’t have very bad spywares programs which can do everything also We do not have a perfect anti Spyware which can remove all of  the available spywares or at least detect them.  But still there are some pretty good anti spyware tools available in market, here are few of them listed –

1. AntiMalware – Malware Byte
2. Ad-Aware Professional from LavaSoft  ( A free version with less functionality is also Avalaible)
3. Spyware Guard from Javacool Software is a free program
4. Spybot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software
5. McAfee Anti-Spyware
6. Xoftspy form Pareto Logic
7. Pest Patrol (now part of Computer Associates by acquisition)

After my interaction with spywares for several years one thing I can say for sure that most of Spywares are not harmful and you do no not need to worry about them. Also if you think an AntiVirus program can save you from All of spywares as well it’s wrong. A good Antivirus program Like Mcafee Enterprise can save you from only 10% of possible common spywares infection.

Also if you find that your computer has Spyware infection which is countless best option to get rid of them is reinstall your OS from scratch. Just backup all your data and format the hard drive. Yes this will remove all of the infection as Spyware infection are limited to OS and not spread in files unless what you think important is itself is a Spyware like in my Case BDsearch Plugin.