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Spyware/Adware Detection and Removal

By Kenneth Barbalace

What is spyware/adware?

Spyware is software that reports your computer activities back to some third-party. This could be as simple as simply tracking your Internet surfing habits to as egregious as collecting and transmitting highly sensitive information like your credit card numbers, passwords or social security number to a third party.

Adware is software that gets installed along with "free" software and then causes ads (especially pop-up ads) to be displayed while one is surfing the Internet or using the computer. Commonly these programs get installed when peer-to-peer music swapping software such as Kazza are installed on a computer.

Collectively called scumware or parasites, adware and spyware can also slow down your computer and the speed at which webpages load. They can also cause your system to become unstable and more prone to crashes. The worst varieties of spyware/adware intentionally try to interfere with users' security programs like firewalls and anti-virus software.

By some estimates, 85% of all home PCs are infected by some form of unwanted/unasked for malware, spyware or adware and that up to 90% of infected users are totally unaware that their computer is infected. This is not a comforting thought.

Any computer that is connected to the Internet has the potential to end up with spyware and/or adware installed on it unintentionally. This is especially true in homes with children who have access to the computer. However, users of Microsoft Internet Explorer are most susceptible to becoming infected by these parasites.

How does it affects websites like this one?

Now I know what you are saying, "what is a page about spyware/adware doing on an environmental chemistry site?" The answer is very simple. Not only do these programs cause harm to end users, but they also cause harm to us. What? You ask. That's right your computer being infected by spyware or adware harms us in that often times these programs use the content of our webpages to target their ads to you, or they subvert our advertising to profit off of your visit to our website. In turn these actions deny us the ability to generate the revenues necessary to keep this site in operation. For this reason this page was put together to help inform you if are infected by some common forms of scumware and provide links to resources that will help you fully detect and remove these scourges from your computer.

Am I infected?

To help detect common malware that is being installed on computers, we have used a JavaScript provided by the kind folks at doxdesk.com. What follows is a report generated by their script disclosing exactly what it found in regards to your computer (assuming you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer v5.0 or higher). Please note this information is not passed back to us or anyone else. It is simply provided for your edification.

Note: If no report appears within this box it is because none of the parasites this script is able to detect were detected, the script did not run or because you are not using MSIE 5.0 or above (which is a good thing).

What can I do to fully detect and remove adware/spyware parasites?

The easiest and best way to fully detect and remove spyware/adware from a computer is to use adware removal software like Ad-Aware or PestPatrol. Also some anti-virus software like Symantec Norton Anti-Virus have begun to include spyware detection and removal tools in their products.

How can I reduce my risks of infection?

Many spyware/adware programs take advantage of inherent design flaws in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook Express and the permissive environment they create. The best way to reduce one's risk to malware is to switch to alternative web browsers like Mozilla Firefox and alternative email clients like Mozilla Thunderbird. Because these programs do not support Active-X and Microsoft's more dangerous implementation of JavaScript called JScript, they are not as susceptible to scumware as is Microsoft's products.

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