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Spyware reached epidemic proportions in 2004
and then proceeded to get worse. It has joined viruses and
hackers as a daily threat to the functioning of your
computer. Spyware slows down your system, bombards you with
pop-up advertising, and hijacks your Internet experience,
taking you to websites you never wanted to visit.
What is Spyware? Spyware refers to a
general class of programs placed on your computer by
unethical Internet companies without your permission or
through deceptive means. The benefit to them is to display
advertising, building marketing data, or take you to
websites for services they want you to buy.
Even though spyware is not a virus and is not designed to
harm your computer, it does so because:
Programs created for unethical purposes are rarely tested
for safety.
Over time, hundreds of these unwanted
programs build up, and your computer pays attention to them
instead of to you, slowing your computer to a crawl.
Badly infected machines cannot be repaired using the best
available anti-spyware programs and may require technician
time to remediate. How Can I Avoid Spyware?
If your computer is on the Internet, it is vulnerable to
spyware. Some common sense things you can do are:
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Be careful of what you download. Some
spyware is even disguised and marketed as an anti-spyware
service.
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Beware of Internet error messages that
look like Windows errors, or the many pop-up ads that offer
a variety of cool, free downloads. Unless you have done your
homework to research the product, you should assume it is
harmful.
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Read those long, boring license agreements
that come with the programs you purchase online. You may be
agreeing to share your hard drive space and CPU time with
strangers all over the Internet.
Our Recommendations:
Microsoft finally weighed in on the problem of
spyware. The Microsoft Solution is called Windows
Defender and is available for download from the
Windows Defender webpage.
Spybot Search & Destroy. Another reliable anti-spyware
program you can download is this imaginatively named
product. Spybot can be manually updated against the latest
threats and contains an immunization feature that adds
malicious web sites to a restricted sites list. Spybot
Search & Destroy can be downloaded free of charge, or you
can donate to the ongoing development of the program when
you acquire it from the
Spybot download page.
SonicWALL is a great hardware solution available from
Shiloh Service.
SonicWALL provides a family of Internet security appliances
designed to protect your network from intruders and to
filter out inappropriate content and applications. Imagine a
firewall, Virtual Private Network security, intrusion
prevention, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and content filtering
all in a single device that is both easy to install and
manage.
SonicWALL solutions are scalable, providing easy to use
systems for small shops, security for wireless networks, and
intricate deployments handling the security needs of large
companies with complex systems.
At Shiloh, we are having a lot of success with these units
and seeing increased demand for SonicWALL products. If you
want to stop most Internet threats before they even get
through the front door, SonicWALL makes a solution for you.
How do I know which anti-spyware solution
is best? Determining which anti-spyware
solution is easiest to manage for your business environment
and works best with your network, workstations, server, and
operating systems is exactly what your Shiloh Service
representatives are trained to determine. Let Shiloh take
the worry out of a threatening Internet world and give you
the peace of mind you deserve to get on with business. Call
724-863-0190 and just hit “0” and ask to speak to your
account manager.
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