What Is Spyware?
The term spyware refers to software that is designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the informed consent of the user. These programs track what users do with their computer and then send that information over the internet. Spyware can collect various types of information about a user. Most spyware programs attempt to track what types of websites a user visits and send this information to an advertisement agency. Other versions simply launch popup advertisements. More malicious versions can try to record what a user types to try to intercept passwords or credit card numbers. Usually, spyware will not interfere with the computer's normal operation. However, when there is a lot of spyware running, it can cause the computer to run slowly.
Two popular anti-spyware programs are Lavasoft Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Both of these programs are free to use.
Spyware is very uncommon on Macintosh systems.
What Are Viruses?
The term virus refers to software designed to maliciously interfere with the normal operation of a computer. Once a computer is infected, the virus will actively attempt to infect other computers. Viruses accomplish this in many ways. The most common ways are through fake e-mails with attachments containing the virus, searching networked computers for security holes (usually unsecure shared folders), and sending fake instant messages with links to the virus on the internet.
Wesleyan University has purchased a site-license for the anti-virus program Symantec Antivurs (the corporate version of Norton Antivurs). It is free for download through the Wesleyan software database.
Like spyware, viruses are also uncommon on Macintosh systems. However, there are known viruses that do infect Macs including Oror, which infects Microsoft Word. If you are sending e-mails with .doc attachments and Sophos (the Wesleyan e-mail virus scanner) is removing them, you are most likely infected with a virus. You should contact the helpdesk or install, update, and run Symantec for Macintosh.
Regular Maintenance
When the Windows operating system (OS) becomes irrevocably damaged, this is usually the result of many different viruses and spyware contributing to its deterioration over time. Only a handful of viruses are destructive enough to force you to reinstall Windows because a single infection. Therefore, it is recommended that you perform a few tasks as regular maintenance of your computer somewhere between once per week and once per month.
1. Make sure you have at least one anti-spyware program and exactly one* anti-virus program installed.
2. Keep all definition files for these programs up-to-date. Definitions are just lists of known viruses and spyware. When a new virus is discovered, it is added to the list, and a new list must be downloaded from the internet.
3. Most anti-virus programs include a feature called "Auto-Protect", which will automatically scan your computer for viruses. This will, however, decrease your performance slightly. Anti-spyware programs do not include the same kind of feature, and you must always scan your computer manually. For this reason, simply installing the proper programs is not enough. You must actually perform a scan regularly.