10 Things That Spyware Can Do To My Computer
Posted by
Johny in
Spyware & Adware on
July 13th, 2008 |
17 responses
Spyware is a harmful program that is downloaded onto your computer via infected emails, corrupt websites, or malicious programs. It can have a very negative impact on your computer’s performance. Following are the 10 most common things that spyware can do to your computer
- One major issue with spyware is that it records personal information from your computer. Spyware often collects information such as your history of visited websites and internet browsing habits, and uses it to place ads on your system based on your preferences. These ads can be in the form of annoying pop-up windows, pop-under windows, or browser toolbars.
- Your internet will run very, very slowly, or become completely unresponsive. Spyware changes many settings in your internet browser, which leads to very sluggish connection speeds. The pop-up and pop-under advertising will also slow your browsing speeds.
- Spyware also negatively affects the stability of your computer. It can cause your computer’s operating system to run very slowly, or even stop responding completely. It can add extra values to your registry, making programs start up invisibly every time you power on your computer.
- Spyware uses up a lot of the available memory that is required for your computer to function. If your computer runs out of resources, your system will crash. If the spyware is not removed, this will happen repeatedly.
- Often, spyware changes the homepage of your browser. While this may seem harmless, keep in mind that it’s likely that the new homepage placed by the spyware will be inappropriate in nature. The most common replacement is a website dedicated to pornography. It can be very difficult to revert the settings to your usual homepage.
- Identity theft is a major concern with spyware, as it collects data from forms that you fill in on the internet, such as usernames and passwords. If you access your bank account or credit card information online, your login information could be stolen.
- Even if your identity is not stolen, information such as your email address, mailing address, and phone number may be sold to third party companies for mailing or calling lists.
- If you’ve managed to download a particularly nasty spyware program, it can access websites of its own accord. These websites are always malicious, and will open the door for other spyware programs and viruses to be downloaded.
- In severe cases, spyware programs—usually in conjunction with other malware—will actually permanently remove or alter programs on your PC.
- Spyware installs unwanted applications onto your computer. You may notice additional icons on your desktop, or extra items in your Start menu. Often these programs are very difficult, if not impossible, to remove.
If you are careful about the websites that you visit and the programs that you download, you can greatly reduce your chance of getting infected with spyware. If you do get infected however, a good anti-virus program should be able to remove most forms of malware.
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Very Very Very usefull information. I am a fan of your blog. It helped me more than once. Thank you. Keep rocking!!!
Loved the post. Now I know what is spyware and how to prevent it from threating my PC. Great work.
Great post
Learned a lot about spyware from this post. Keep doing your great work.
Why does people invent spyware at all. Good to have blogs like yours.
They invent spyware so we’ll have to use an anti spyware. What can we do ha?
I love your blog. I took your advice and I am using an anti spyware from your reviews page which is great. Thank you admin.
Thank you, I’ll keep posting…
And those are just the first 10 things that are shown here. There are alot more things that spyware can harm and do to your PC.
Absolutely right Mr. Macky. spyware are very harmfull and can cause lose of valuable information from your computer which I think is one of the most dangerous things today.
Seems like spyware can do a lot of harm to the PC.
Why won’t you do a “10 things that Spyware can do to my computer” Part B? it is a great article, I would love to read more.
I’m glad you find this article about spyware interesting. I’ll have more articles about spyware and from other point of views.
[...] account information, credit card numbers, and social security numbers. Check out this article about what spyware can do to your computer.
I can count many more things that spyware can do to your computer…
I wish i could put spyware in my bank account that will double my money automatically.
Wow
I found this on yahoo poking around for something else entirely- now I’m going to need to go back and read all the old posts! So long spare time today, but this was a awesome find!