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Technicians Blame Spyware for Increase in Infected Computers

Posted on: Friday, 1 July 2005, 00:00 CDT

Jun. 30--An opportunistic intruder known as spyware has been infecting computers with increasing regularity.

And some of the problems are real doozies to fix, said Carl Hogue, director of marketing for Milwaukee PC's Grand Chute store.

"One out of three computers coming in have something spyware involved," he said. "And a third of the spyware machines are in such a degree of infestation we have to wipe out the computer and reload Windows from scratch."

What is spyware? Simply put, it's a software program used as a marketing tool that operates without most users even realizing it. It's often used to link pop-up advertisers to selected computer users and send e-mail messages to the user about products offered.

TDS Telecom, a Madison-based telecommunications services provider, cited a report that 66 percent of all personal computers are infected by an average of 25 individual spyware programs. While that represents an 11 percent decline from this time last year, spyware remains a pervasive problem with debilitating effects on computers.

So how can you protect your computer? Hogue and other local computer experts suggest installing a reliable anti-virus program, get firewall protection, which prevents outside parties from accessing your computer and install an anti-spyware program.

Computer users are wise to start with the basic defenses, said Mark Lemmert, chief executive officer at Appleton-based Athena Group.

"First and foremost, they need to make sure their operating system is up to date," he said. "Make sure that all the security patches that Microsoft releases are applied. The operating system is really what hackers and people who try to exploit computers with spyware are taking advantage of: holes in the Windows operating system."

Spyware means that someone is accessing your computer without permission, Lemmert said.

"Software that gathers information on what you do, then sells that to various consumer groups. It's very invasive to privacy," he said.

How do you know your computer's been hit? Look for e-mail that doesn't work the way it should. Another sign is that pop-up ads and dialog boxes that appear with such frequency normal computer usage becomes impossible.

Or maybe a change in your homepage to something you didn't want or an undesired installation of new toolbars in Internet Explorer, said Michael Vanden Elsen, general manager at TDS Telecom's Sherwood office.

"It can slow down your program immensely," said Stephen Walbert of IT Centers, a Waupaca-based technical education center. "Pretty much every program you install has spyware in it."

Peyton Engel, a security engineer with Berbee Information Networks in Grand Chute, said consumers and businesses have become much more aware of how rampant spyware has become in the past year. As a result, computer users are making sure they are up-to-date on any patches released by Microsoft.

But you need to go beyond that, he said.

"You should update the Web browser," Engel said.

Lemmert said he distrusts the virus software and spyware protection that consumers can get at no charge from some Internet service providers.

"The problem is it's not fixing the root of the problem with Windows. It's just putting a Band-Aid on it," he said.

A CLOSER LOOK: What is spyware? It can be any software that does the following:

--Installs itself on your computer without your knowledge

--Collects or transmits information about your computer habits without your consent

--Keeps reinstalling itself no matter how often you remove it

--Sends unwanted ads in the form of pop-ups on your computer whether you're online browsing or not

Source: TDS Telecom

ON THE WEB: For more on how to combat spyware, go to: www.tdstelecom.com and click on Frequently Asked Questions

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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MSFT,

Source: The Post-Crescent

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