Fact 1:

Spyware can easily be installed on a system without a user’s knowledge. Infections can originate from open ports in your firewall or by not having a firewall, visiting some malicious websites or installing some software that includes the spyware with its install package.

In many cases one infection can propagate more infections by installing other spyware software in the background without the user ever knowing something is going on.

Basis of this Fact:

It only takes one open port in your firewall or just one piece of software to infect your system. After that most spyware is designed to download and install other pieces of software to infect and re-infect your system with even more spyware.

Fact 2:

There is no software available that can remove 100% of all spyware.

Basis of this Fact:

In a recent studies by PC world and others, tests compared 9 of the top spyware scanning and removal applications against each other. Each application was tested on a system infected with common spyware threats, and then compared against each other to see which product was best at spyware removal and detection.

The top three applications detected only 65% to 85% of the spyware on the test system, while all the other application detection rates were well below 60%.

So trusting just one piece of software for spyware removal is not a good bet.

Fact 3:

Spyware can make your identity information just a few mouse clicks away for criminals.

Basis of this Fact:

Spyware has helped many criminals get personal information in just a click of the mouse. A special type of spyware called a key logger can record your account numbers and passwords and then send them off to the writer of the spyware program on your system. Online Identity theft and fraud now leads the way as the method of choice to rip people off as it is simple to do and the chances of getting caught are small.

Fact 4:

Spyware can slow down your internet speed dramatically.

Basis of this Fact:

Every piece of information that leaves your computer via the Internet has to use some of your bandwidth. A heavily infected system can send a significant amount of information out at any given time.

This seriously limits the availability of bandwidth for legitimate uses and the user suffers a dramatic loss of speed.

In many cases, spyware can turn your computer into nothing more then a zombie that relays things like spam and viruses which uses even more system and bandwidth resources.

Fact 5:

Spyware takes away precious system resources from your computer, making boot times longer and overall performance much slower.

Basis of this Fact:

This is self explanatory. Your system only has so many resources available to complete tasks. Every program (good or bad) requires system resources; spyware takes away resources from legitimate computer programs.

Fact 6:

A survey suggests that over 90% of computers are infected with some type of spyware.

Basis of this Fact:

90% sounds like a lot, but imagine all the stuff your computer does day in and day out. All the websites you go to and all the programs you may have downloaded. So when you know that it only takes one bad website or one bad program to infect you and then you add up all the places you could get spyware from 90% is not that surprising.

Fact 7:

Some types of spyware can install programs to allow hackers complete control over your system.

Basis of this Fact:

Everyday users are having their systems hijacked and used to create problems. This often results in someone from the outside using your computer to send out spam and viruses or linking with thousands of other computers to shut down websites and launch other kinds of attacks.

What can I do to protect my system?

* Run more than one spyware scanner on your system.

As stated above no scanner catches 100% of all spyware so running more than one scanner increases the chances of catching spyware on your system.

* Scan often.

Scanning often makes sure you get rid of spyware before it has a chance to download more spyware or send your personal data out.

* Keep your system updated.

Make sure you have auto updates turned on or go to Windows update often so you get the latest security patches.

* Do not go to websites or download programs you are not sure of.

You can use the new phishing filter in IE7 to check websites and do a Google search for any new programs to check if they have been reported for spyware before downloading and using them.