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Categories - Copywriting - Shopping - Free Online Business Help - Telecommunications
Services
Articles: Electronics
- Adware Tactics
By Joel
Walsh
When adware can't trick you
into installing it, it often resorts to a secretive invasion. Find
out how to defend yourself.
Adware
Installation Stealth Tactic 1: Expensive Freebie
How it
works: adware may get installed with so-called free software without
any mention of it being included anywhere in the software's license
or documentation. Or any mention of the bundled software is buried
deep within a click-wrap licensing agreement.
How to
protect yourself: It's become an endlessly repeated clichι, but it's
true: only install software from developers you trust. That doesn't
mean you can never try any software from a new company. Just
familiarize yourself with the developer's reputation before opening
wide your hard drive. Search the developer's name on search engines.
If a dozen anti-spyware advertisements are listed alongside the
search results, that's not a good sign.
How to fight back:
If you've already downloaded the expensive freebie, it's probably
too late to simply uninstall it. The bundled adware will likely
stick around on your computer long after the software that came with
it has been sent to the recycling bin. Instead, you need to use an
anti-spyware program, and preferably two to be sure.
Tactic
2. Adware Drive-by
How it works: adware may hide in a
website's code and download itself automatically onto the site
visitor's hard drive. This is often called a "drive-by"
installation.
How to protect yourself: drive-by
installations of software tend to happen on obscure commercial
websites, rather than personal homepages, blogs, or the websites of
established businesses. If you can avoid surfing in those kinds of
rough waters, you'll be a lot safer from adware attacks.
How to fight back: If you do suspect that a site has downloaded
software onto your computer, close it immediately and fire up your
anti-spyware and antivirus software. You may also want to delete
your browser's cache and also any program downloads folders and
temporary internet folders, just in case the adware is a new kind of
adware that isn't in your anti-spyware software's database yet.
Tactic 3: The Old-Fashioned Way: Email
How it
works: you know the drill: just as with viruses, adware may come as
an email attachment. The stealth part is that simply not opening
attachments may not be enough to protect you. The attachment may not
display an attachment icon and is set to auto-install as soon as the
message is opened.
How to protect yourself: make sure your
email software does not open attached files automatically. With most
new email software applications the option to block automatic
downloads of attached files is set as the default. But to be really
safe, you should set your anti-spyware software to automatically
monitor all email.
How to fight back: delete the offending
email without opening it or the attachment (assuming that hasn't
happened already). Run a full scan of your hard drive using
anti-spyware and antivirus software.
Joel Walsh writes for
spyware-refuge about spyware and adware removal: http://www.spyware-refuge.com?
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