Personal Computer Protection:
Start the new year off with a clean slate, well
at least for your computer. It seems like everyone’s
out to get you these days between e-mail viruses,
spam and now Spyware has
entered the mix. There are ways to protect your PC
though.
How can you tell if you’ve got Spyware? If you’ve
noticed your computer running slower and slower you
could very well have Spyware that has infected your
PC. Spyware causes your PC to run slower and slower
because programs are running in the background that
take up resources. Spyware can attach to your computer
as you surf the internet, especially at certain sites,
like gaming and music download sites, being the most
popular for infecting you when you visit.
Spyware comes in different forms, such as, “ad-ware”, “browser
hi-jacking” software or “malware” which sends your
sites visited and keystrokes to special computers.
Recommendations:
Here are some helpful tools and tips for getting
the most out of your workstation, and keeping it
running smoothly all year long.
We
recommend Norton Antivirus and Norton AntiSpam
for protecting
your
computer
against
viruses.
It
can be purchased at the Symantec web
site or at most online retailers, like CompUSA or
CDW.
For Spyware we’ve found the following 3 programs
to be very helpful (All have free, make a donation
and paying versions):
1. Ad-Aware at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
2. SpyBot Search and Destroy at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
3. Bazooka Spyware Scanner http://www.kephyr.com
We normally run these programs once a week (even
though we’re behind a firewall at our office)
and each will pick up different spyware. A home PC
that’s not behind a firewall really needs this
software. The first time I ran these programs on
my home PC, which was hardly functioning at the time,
the softwares picked up 1,700 spyware programs
Note:
These softwares are ONLY recommendations by
BlueDarter staff and therefore BlueDarter Solutions
will not and cannot be held liable for these recommendations.
These solutions work for us but may not work for
you. We suggest you consult your computer consultant
for more information or assistance in implementing
a network antivirus-antispam software system or
spyware program.
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